Washington (Platts)--25Feb2009

A fiscal 2009 spending bill approved by the House February 25 removes the
expiration date for DOE's loan guarantee program and cuts funding for the
department's spent fuel repository program. The 245-178 vote was generally
along party lines. The Senate is expected to take up the bill as soon as
February 27. Under current law, the loan guarantee authorizations for all the
low-carbon technologies covered by the program will expire if the energy
secretary has not signed a contract by September 30 -- the end of fiscal 2009
-- for a company to receive a guarantee. But the spending bill making its way
through Congress would make the loan guarantee authority available
indefinitely. That provision is important to the nuclear industry because it
does not expect NRC to issue a license for a new plant -- a requirement for
receiving financial backing from the government -- until at least 2010.
Funding for the repository program at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, would be roughly
$288 million. That is about $98 million below the FY-08 level of $386.4
million and about $200 million below the budget request submitted last year by
then-President George W. Bush.