NPR 2010-02-17

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Korva Coleman.

President Obama announced federal loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in the US in three decades. NPR’s Kathy Lohr reports.

The 8.3-billion-dollar loan guarantee will pay for the construction and operation of two nuclear reactors 1 to be built in Burke County, Georgia. The Southern Company reactors are part of the administration’s energy plan to reduce American dependence 2 on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions 3. The president said a bipartisan group will look into improving the safe storage of nuclear waste and Mr. Obama said plants must be held to the strictest safety standards. Loan guarantees are critical for plans to build any new nuclear plants, but critics say the costs are too high and they know the industry’s poor record of loan defaults. The Southern Company has applied 4 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permits and started site preparation but cannot begin building without NRC approval. The earliest that could come is 2011. Kathy Lohr, NPR News, Atlanta.

Automaker Toyota is suspending production at two US plants–-one in Texas and another in Kentucky––to deal with the massive vehicle recall. Toyota recalled more than eight million vehicles with brake and gas pedal problems. Earlier this year, Toyota suspended sales of new vehicles in order to deal with the matter. Dealers 5 are still working through a backlog 6 of unsold vehicles.

A Vatican meeting has ended today, with Pope Benedict urging Irish clergy 7 to confront the sex scandal courageously 8. He did not take action on victims’ demands that he force some bishops 9 to resign. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome.

A Vatican statement said the Pope called the sexual abuse of children “a heinous 10 crime” that offends God. The meeting came two months after the Murphy Commission report into crimes by pedophile priests said the church in Ireland had obsessively 11 concealed 12 child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004 and operated a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. While 24 Irish bishops were meeting the Pope at the Vatican, anger flared 13 in Ireland over the refusal of the papal envoy 14 to appear before the Irish parliament. In a press conference here this afternoon, several Irish bishops evaded 15 questions about what concrete steps were decided 16 to restore the trust of Irish Catholics after revelations of decades of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups. Cardinal 17 Sean Brady, the Primate 18 of All Ireland, said we are debating which are the appropriate penitential exercises. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

Iran’s president claims his country is installing new equipment at its main nuclear facility. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says new centrifuges are faster. Last week, Iran said it was starting enriching uranium at a higher level to use for medical needs.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrials are up 122 points at 10,221.

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The George Polk Awards from Long Island University are among the nation’s most prestigious 19 for journalism 20 and some of the most prominent titles in media are again winners. One prize honors an anonymous 21 group of people who captured and uploaded video of the bloody 22 effects of repression 23 in Iran. NPR’s David Folkenflik reports.

The Iranian regime was muzzling 24 the media’s coverage 25 of last summer’s protests when an onlooker 26 took a video footage of a young woman lying in the street. She had been shot in the heart and was spitting up blood as she died. Her name was Neda. And once uploaded to YouTube, her video became a rallying cry. John Darnton, the curator of the George Polk Awards, said “This award celebrates the fact that in today’s world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news”. Other honorees included the New York Times’s David Rohde for his account of being held captive by the Taliban and a team of reporters for Bloomberg News led by the late Mark Pittman who sought Federal Reserve Board records on the bank bailout and later sued the Fed. David Folkenflik, NPR News, New York.

Former President Bill Clinton is among mourners at the funeral of Pennsylvania Congressman 27 John Murtha. He died last week after complications from surgery. Murtha was a Democrat 28, first elected to a seat in 1974.

Astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavour will take a spacewalk tonight to unlock shutters 29 on an observation deck they installed earlier. The crews will also have had installed a separate room for the International Space Station. The shuttle crew is scheduled to undock from the station on Friday. The Endeavour is scheduled to return to Earth this weekend.

I’m Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.