Chu: Nuclear must be part of energy mix

Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought Wednesday to assure skeptical senators that the Obama administration supports continued development of nuclear energy, even as it backs away from building a nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

“Nuclear is going to be part of our energy future. It has to be,” Chu told members of the Senate Budget Committee at a hearing in which a half dozen senators, Republicans and Democrats, raised concerns about the administration’s support for nuclear power.
Chu said he is ready to act on loan guarantees for the first group of new reactors and plans on “moving very aggressively to getting the money out the door.” Congress in 2005 authorized $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for new reactors, but none of the applications has yet to be approved.

Still, Chu said the administration is determined to move in a new direction on how to deal with the thousands of tons of waste in the form of used reactor fuel now being kept at power plants.

Chu said the material can be kept safely “for decades” at reactor sites. And he said he hopes to have a recommendation from a special panel on alternatives to Yucca Mountain and long-term nuclear waste disposal before the end of the year. He said he will soon name members to the planned panel.

AP