Senate endorses loan plan to revive nuclear industry

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.

"The time has come to quit playing around with energy and say, wherever we can, we are going to produce more energy," argued Domenici. Nuclear power has long been neglected, he said, and that has been "a giant mistake."

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 pronuclear or antinuclear," argued 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. John Sununu, R-N.H., co-sponsor with Wyden of the effort to scuttle the loan guarantees, said he supports a broad array of energy sources, including nuclear, but "power plants should be developed on a level playing field without government subsidizing one industry over another."

He said he also opposes a $2-billion subsidy to develop clean coal plants, also in the energy legislation that Domenici hopes to get through the Senate in the coming weeks. An energy bill already passed by the House contains far less help for the nuclear industry and does little to spur new reactor construction.

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