Nuclear industry asks for massive incentives in climate bill

By Edward Felker
The Nuclear Energy Institute said Monday that Congress should nearly double energy loan guarantees, speed up the approval process for new nuclear power plants and include other incentives for nuclear energy in pending climate change bills--changes that it said could result in 45 new plants by 2030.
The institute, which lobbies for the nuclear power industry, issued a nine-page legislative proposal that Alex Flint, senior vice president for government affairs, said was timed to give lawmakers -- and President Obama -- concrete proposals as Congress drafts cap-and-trade legislation.
"We think a consensus is beginning to develop in Washington that nuclear provisions are essential in climate legislation, both for physical as well as political reasons," Flint said, referring to nuclear's low-carbon electricity potential.
Flint said NEI's proposal was to be presented Monday to key lawmakers on Capitol Hill and to the Obama administration, which has said it is not opposed to new nuclear power but has also sidelined a planned underground spent-fuel site at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. The lack of a permanent storage facility has cast a shadow over new nuclear construction.
A total of 104 reactors, at 65 plants, supply about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. The expansion of nuclear power is considered critical to affordable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in climate legislation backed by Obama and congressional Democrats.
The climate bill passed in the House this summer, and the primary Senate bill, do little to speed the financing and approval of new nuclear power plants. But Flint said that staffers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have indicated that committee chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is open to adding additional help for nuclear to her panel's bill, despite her personal opposition to nuclear power.
"We are very encouraged by her willingness to include new provisions," Flint said, though he declined to say which of the institute's proposals have the best chance of success.
The proposal comes the day before Boxer is to begin three days of hearings on the climate bill she co-authored with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry. In a revised draft of the bill published Friday, Boxer added no new incentives for nuclear beyond worker training and waste research provisions that were already written into an earlier version of the bill.
Still, federal support for new nuclear power, primarily through construction loan guarantees, will be key to winning support for the legislation from pro-nuclear Senate Republicans, particularly Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and some moderate Democrats.
Flint would not say if NEI's plan was written to attract specific votes in the Senate, where Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut, has been meeting with Graham, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and other nuclear-power advocates to craft a proposal for Boxer and Kerry.
But, he said, moderates from both parties are converging around the idea of adding new nuclear power plants, particularly Democrats concerned about whether cap-and-trade can succeed in reducing emissions without consumer price spikes.
"Many advocates of climate legislation...have come to recognize that achieving their climate objectives is going to be very difficult and they're going to have to use all technologies to do it. Without regard for the politics, they have become increasingly open to the role of new nuclear," he said.
The NEI also proposes boosting the government's alternative energy loan guarantee program, already authorized at $110 billion with $18.5 billion for nuclear power, by an additional $100 billion, and removing the 30 percent limit on guarantees for any one technology included in the House climate bill.
NEI also wants expanded federal tax incentives and a faster approval process by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The faster timetable would cut to six years, instead of nine or more, the time from an initial proposal to electricity generation, Flint said.
The institute does not propose a single solution to the waste issue, Flint said, but supports the creation of a blue-ribbon commission proposed by President Obama to explore options. A commission was also included in a Senate energy bill passed in committee this summer.
The options include storage in above-ground dry casks, possibly for centuries, Flint said, and the creation of interim storage sites. Those could be set up at decommissioned nuclear power plants and the government should consider offering incentives for local communities willing to accept the waste.