12/12/2003

WASHINGTON –

The Senate endorsed a plan Tuesday for the government to provide loan guarantees for construction of a half dozen nuclear power plants that supporters say are necessary for the industry’s survival.

Critics called the government assistance a giveaway to a mature industry that should be left to succeed or fail on its own. But their attempt to strip the measure from a broad energy bill fell short, 50-48.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the architect of the package of subsidies for the nuclear industry, said the government assistance will jump-start nuclear power. There has not been a new nuclear plant licensed since the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania.

Opponents questioned why nuclear power should be singled out for such largess, which they said could cost taxpayers $14 billion to $16 billion should the future power reactors fail and be abandoned.

It's "not a question about whether someone is pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear," argues Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of the provision's sharpest critics, but whether "to put at risk the taxpayers of this country" if the reactor projects flop.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., one of the Democrats' strongest proponents of nuclear power, defended the loan guarantees.

Landrieu dismissed findings from a Congressional Budget Office study that warned that taxpayers would be left on the hook when investors default on their loans. Instead, Landrieu said, it is precisely because building new plants is so expensive and financially risky that the federal government should step in and help out.

"I'll concede that we probably don't know what the exact costs will be, but the economic, environmental and security benefits of investing in new nuclear plants for our future generations are many and great while the financial risk to the public sector by comparison is rather small," Landrieu said. "Let's give this idea a chance."