Progress Illinois

The devastating news out of Japan continues to get worse. Explosions at nuclear reactors and leaking radiation led the government to order the quarantine of 140,000 people. While the tragedy is halfway around the world, the safety of nuclear power plants is a major issue for Illinois. (You can follow the latest video from Japan here.)

The Prairie State has 11 nuclear reactors, more than any other state, and more generating capacity than all but seven nations. And while Illinois is unlikely to suffer an 8.9 Richter scale earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the events in Japan are forcing Illinois officials to examine procedures at the state's nuclear power plants, four of which use reactors that have the same design as the reactors now in crisis in Japan.

Experts say there's no reason to be concerned about the safety of nuclear power in Illinois, and some are worried that the disaster in Japan will prove a set back for nuclear energy. Citing rising gas prices and global warming, one former nuclear power plant employee told the Daily Herald, "Nuclear power's comeback is probably going to be placed on hold for a while at a time we need it most." And U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin defended the use of nuclear power, arguing that although nuclear waste storage remains an issue, the energy source is "part of our future."

Even with the massive amounts of nuclear power in Illinois -- half of the state's electricity comes from the 11 reactors -- Illinois has not built a new plant since 1987. In the wake of the news from Japan, 2011 is unlikely to be the year the moratorium is lifted.

We'll be running through more of the numbers about how the House Republicans' cuts-and-more-cuts approach to the federal budget would hit Illinois specifically a bit later today, but here's one for starters: 1,450. That's the number of researchers and support staff who would lose their jobs at the Argonne and Fermilab national laboratories, located near Darien and Batavia, respectively, should the GOP get their way. Illinois' Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin toured Argonne yesterday to dramatize the reductions, telling reporters the House GOP plan "will kill jobs, kill research and kill the competitive edge that America needs to succeed in the 21st century."

Durbin has been sounding the alarm about the House GOP budget bill, and its impact on the economy in northeastern Illinois, for the last couple of weeks. In a letter he sent the ranking members of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, Durbin wrote that "[s]ignificant cuts to the Labs will be devastating to the local communities surrounding the labs in Batavia and DuPage County.  Suppliers and contractors for the labs, as well as the private companies that use the facilities also would be adversely affected by the closures and layoffs."

The budget battle in Washington is fluid, and there's talk that a short-term deal is in the works to continue federal government operations for two weeks after $4 billion in cuts to the current-year budget are made. Stay tuned.

It's crunch time for states coping with high unemployment. Budget addresses are coming this week from President Barack Obama and Gov. Pat Quinn, and both should introduce a concrete plan for dealing with such a serious issue. There are signs that Obama is proposing a fix, and Illinois' senior Senator Dick Durbin, calling the situation an "extraordinary emergency," is introducing legislation to ease the pain for his home state.

The issue is that 30 states around the country, including Illinois, counted on interest-free loans to bolster their unemployment trust funds, providing the newly unemployed with a basic safety net during the country's deepest economic crisis in some 70 years. But now, the provision that allowed the feds to tender the loans without an interest rate has expired.

Durbin's legislation would suspend the interest rate for two more years and allow states to refrain from raising unemployment taxes on businesses. In the Chicago Tribune, Durbin addressed his proposal, saying, "This is an effort to give states a little bit of a breather in paying back the federal government and to give small businesses and businesses in general a little bit of a reprieve from raising taxes to pay back this unemployment insurance trust fund." If federal and state leaders are serious about helping the unemployed, they will quickly pass Durbin's bill.