US still commited to its nuclear expansionUS still wants to expand nuclear energy: Chu
(AFP)–1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — The United States still wants to expand nuclear plantconstruction despite the Japan disaster and sees nuclear power as a keypart of clean energy efforts, Energy Secretary Steven Chu saidWednesday.
Testifying at a House subcommittee hearing aboutPresident Barack Obama's request for energy funds in the fiscal year2012 budget, Chu defended the US nuclear industry, which provides about20 percent of America's power.
Nuclear energy "has an importantrole to play in our energy portfolio," Chu said, noting that thepresident's budget asks Congress for $36 billion in loan guaranteeauthority to "jumpstart the domestic nuclear industry."
Asked byTexas Democratic Congressman Joe Barton if Obama still supports nuclearconstruction in the United States, given the crisis in Japan following apotent quake and tsunami there last week, Chu answered:
"We areasking for loan guarantees. The present budget is also calling for smallmodular reactors. That position has not been changed."
Barton responded: "So that's a yes?"
"Yes," Chu answered.
"Given,again, what has happened, do you and the president want Congress tosupport the full 36 billion that you have put in the budget?" Bartonasked.
"Yes," Chu said.
The US nuclear industry has largelystalled, with no new plants built to completion since the March 28, 1979accident at Three Mile Island, a partial reactor meltdown that led to"very small" releases of radioactivity, according to the US NuclearRegulatory Commission (NRC).
No one was killed or injured in the incident, but it stirred an outcry that blocked further expansion of the US nuclear program.
"Ithink the events unfolding in the Japan incidents actually appear to bemore serious than Three Mile Island. To what extent we don't reallyknow now," Chu added.
An attempt to launch nuclear renaissance inthe United States has faltered due to heavy costs associated withreactor construction, which the Obama administration hopes can beovercome through government-backed loan guarantees.
Obama vowed on Tuesday to "further improve" the safety of US atomic facilities.
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