Nobel Prize-winning physicist wants more nuclear and clean coal
By Stephen Heiser
President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for energy secretary, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, said if confirmed he will pursue policies to support nuclear power production and clean coal. At a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Steven Chu said two key challenges facing the United States are making the nation more energy independent and climate change.
Despite the occasional pointed questioning, Chu is expected to be confirmed by the Senate as early as next week. Republicans encouraged Mr. Chu be a more forceful advocate for nuclear energy.
"Isn't it important we accelerate this proven source of clean energy?" Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Al.) asked with respect to nuclear power.
"I'm supportive of the fact that the nuclear industry should be part of the mix," replied Chu.
Mr. Chu promised to speed the disbursal of loan guarantees that his agency is authorized to give to companies seeking to build nuclear reactors. In response to Democrats' unease about the expansion of nuclear plants, Mr. Chu said the DOE needed to develop a better plan for waste disposal than the Yucca Mountain depository in Nevada.
Chu, a former chairman of the physics department at Stanford University, shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997 for discovering a way to cool and trap atoms by using laser light.