Obama Said to Seek $54 Billion in Nuclear-Power Loan Guarantees
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, acting on a pledge to support nuclear power, will propose tripling loan guarantees for new reactors to more than $54 billion, two people familiar with the plan said. The additional loan guarantees in Obamas budget, which will be released on Feb. 1, are part of an effort to bolster nuclear-power production after Obama called for doing so in his State of the Union address Jan. 27. Today, the Energy Department plans to announce creation of a panel to find a solution to storing the waste generated by nuclear plants.
U.S. President Barack Obama
To create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives, Obama said in his speech.That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear-power plants in this country. For the 2011 budget, the department will add $36 billion to the $18.5 billion already approved for nuclear-power plant loan guarantees, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the budget hasnt been released. The program was started in 2005 by Congress to encourage new plant construction, but the department has yet to issue a loan guarantee. Nuclear plants accounted for 20 percent of U.S. power generation in 2008, according to the Energy Department. Industry groups such as the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute have said the loan guarantees are critical to reviving the industry because most companies cant afford the capital investment in a facility that can take a decade to complete. The institute in a December report put the cost of a reactor at as much as $9 billion. Southern Co.s Reactors Southern Co. of Atlanta expects to be the first to get a loan guarantee, in two or three months, which may help it finance two additional nuclear reactors at its two-unit Vogtle plant in Georgia, Chief Executive Officer David M. Ratcliffe said in an interview Jan. 27. The Energy Department will announce formation of a panel that will study alternatives to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to an administration official. Obama has said he would halt work on the Nevada project and find another solution to handling spent nuclear fuel. Energy Department Spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller said she couldnt comment on the budget. Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, didnt immediately return a phone call. A White House spokesman declined to comment. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at [email protected] ; Hans Nichols in Washington at [email protected] .
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