Jul 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dave Michaels The Dallas Morning News



House lawmakers approved a spending bill Thursday that includes $25 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, an amount that could enable the expansion of North Texas' Comanche Peak plant.

Dallas-based Luminant, which owns the plant, said the additional amount "would be sufficient" to allow funding for its plan to build two reactors. Luminant said it was "the first alternate" last year when the U.S. Department of Energy selected four nuclear projects to further consider for loan guarantees.

"We can't guarantee it, but this is a very important step to enabling it," said David Campbell, chief executive of Luminant, the power-generation unit of Energy Future Holdings.

 Campbell credited Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, with helping to secure the funding. An earlier draft of the legislation didn't include funding for the nuclear program, which is unpopular among liberals in the House.

"We are at the dawn of a nuclear power renaissance in the United States, which will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and the clean energy our nation needs," Edwards said in a prepared statement.

Earlier this year, the Energy Department awarded its first nuclear loan guarantee -- $8.3 billion to Southern Co. and several partners to construct two reactors in Georgia.

In addition to the $25 billion approved Thursday by a House Appropriations subcommittee, the House included $9 billion for nuclear loan guarantees in a supplemental spending bill that it passed July 1. The Senate must still approve both measures.

Luminant applied for a license to expand its plant in Glen Rose in 2008. Campbell said the cost of the project is estimated at between $15 billion and $20 billion.

Luminant hopes to get a license to build and operate the reactors by 2012, and to operate them by 2018 to 2020.

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