A nuclear power boost for bill

Jacques Besnainou, president of Areva North America, said that the Finnish reactor was "a difficult project" with "a very difficult customer." He said that U.S. customers would benefit from its lessons. "Nuclear is not the only solution for the U.S., but there's no solution without nuclear energy," he said. Areva is investing $400 million in a Virginia plant that will manufacture nuclear reactor components.

Another obstacle could be the price of natural gas, which offers a cheaper alternative. Natural gas power plants produce only half the carbon dioxide of coal-fired ones. With the discovery that vast shale gas resources can be tapped with new technology, natural gas prices are low and attractive for power producers.

Relying on subsidies

Analysts say nuclear plants will only be viable if natural gas prices stay higher than $7 per one thousand cubic feet, but current prices are less than half that level. As a result, utility plans for new nuclear plants have lost momentum. Moody's said that more than half of loan guarantee applicants were at a "low" level of activity.

Without subsidies from taxpayers, the expense of new plants would abort the much ballyhooed "nuclear renaissance," analysts say. The new plants are expected to cost $8 billion to $10 billion each. Moody's analysts said it was a " 'bet the farm' endeavor for most companies."

Henry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, lamented that Senate Republicans were "giving up their economic principles in exchange for more federal subsidies for . . . super-expensive, financially risky nuclear power."

Lobbyists say that even a generous package of nuclear power subsidies might not attract the votes needed for a climate bill. A nuclear package is "necessary but not sufficient for a lot of Republicans," said an expert at one major utility.

Alexander said nuclear power subsidies would not win his vote "because the economy-wide cap-and-trade [system] is so flawed." A cap-and-trade system is the centerpiece of both Senate and House climate bills; it would set a ceiling on greenhouse-gas emissions and allow companies to trade emission permits.

The $18.5 billion of nuclear loan guarantees, included in legislation adopted under former president George W. Bush, would cover two or three nuclear plants. Administration officials have said that they might try to stretch that money by combining it with loan guarantees from Japan, home of some of the contractors seeking to build U.S. plants.

Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.