Republican senators today accused Energy Secretary Steven Chu of sending mixed signals to the nuclear industry. His department's FY2011 budget proposal calls for $36 million in loan guarantees for nuclear power yet eliminates funding for the nuclear waste repository site at Yucca Mountain.

That, according to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., doesn't send an encouraging signal to the investment community. "If private investors don't see an answer to nuclear waste, they might feel some way responsible for the storage," Burr told Chu at an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing this morning.

Chu, testifying to the panel members on the budget proposal, maintained that "we're going to have a solution to nuclear, the backend fuel issue. Scientifically, we're going to have a solution. Given that, there is no reason to be a little bit tepid." Chu referenced a DOE-appointed nuclear waste commission, first announced last week, that he said will address the issue. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that temporary waste storage onsite at current plants is sufficient for at least half a century, Chu added.

"But temporary storage does not meet the requirement for shareholders to aggressively invest in build-out of nuclear generation," argued Burr, whose state gets nearly a third of its electricity from nuclear power, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The panel's top Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said she sees a "disconnect" between President Obama's State of the Union address and DOE's budget. In his speech, Obama made explicit his support for nuclear power, even categorizing it as a "clean energy." Murkowski called upon Chu to hurry up and issue the $18.5 million in loan guarantees for nuclear power that Congress authorized in 2005, but said that what is "more troubling" is the administration's decision to take Yucca Mountain off the table: "This leaves us without a viable repository option at this point and exposes taxpayers to billions in liability for the government's breach of contract."

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