U.S. to Press Ahead With Expanding Loan Guarantees for Reactors, Chu Says

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

By Simon Lomax

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration will press ahead with efforts to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors while investigating the failure of Japan’s power plants after an earthquake, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.

The U.S. Energy Department is seeking to add $36 billion in loan-guarantee authority to the program’s existing $18.5 billion, Chu said today at a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel hearing. President Barack Obama asked lawmakers to expand the program in his February budget request.

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U.S. nuclear plants are subject to “constant monitoring and oversight,” Obama said in an interview yesterday with Albuquerque, New Mexico, television station KOAT.

Obama supports an expansion of nuclear power and increased loan guarantees, and “that position has not been changed,” Chu said.

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