Exelon says $50 bln loan program would spark nukes

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Exelon Corp (EXC.N), the largest U.S. nuclear power generator, said an additional $50 billion in government loan guarantees for nuclear power would be enough to spark the industry to build new plants.

The current nuclear loan guarantee program of $18.5 billion could be expanded if utilities and lawmakers who back the industry win new incentives in U.S. climate legislation.

"We think that ($50 billion) would be enough to give nuclear a real start for the next couple of decades," John Rowe, Exelon's president and chief executive, told reporters after testifying before a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works panel.

Republican senators like Lindsey Graham have said they would support climate legislation only if it includes far more incentives for nuclear, which is virtually free of greenhouse gas emissions.

Graham and Democratic Senator John Kerry, a co-sponsor of the Senate's climate bill, are working to put in more incentives.

In addition, some Democratic senators support more nuclear and President Barack Obama has said he would support new plants.

Earlier this week the industry group the Nuclear Energy Institute said it wants about $100 billion in loan guarantees in the bill for nuclear and renewable energy.

Rowe said $100 billion was a "pretty good number" to get to the objective of building more nuclear plants. But he said $50 billion was more likely because the Senate had previously approved that amount in other energy legislation before it got wiped out in a compromise with the House.

Not everyone agreed that nuclear power needed government help outlined by NEI's proposal.

"It is truly staggering that an industry this big and this mature can claim to need so much government help to survive and thrive in a world in which technologies that don't emit global warming pollution will benefit," Ellen Vancko, a nuclear expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a release.

Rowe also said Exelon was confident it would get a $60 million loan guarantee for building the largest urban solar energy project in Chicago.

"We have been given oral assurances," he told reporters. "And on that basis we have gone ahead and done two-thirds of the work to build the project." (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Christian Wiessner)