In an attempt to jumpstart the nation’s nuclear power program, the Energy Department has chosen four companies to split $18.5 billion to build the next generation of nuclear reactors, reports the Wall Street Journal.

UniStar Nuclear Energy, NRG Energy Inc., Scana Corp and Southern Co. are expected to share a set of loan guarantees to be awarded by the Energy Department. The guarantees would enable the companies to start building the reactors as early as 2011, with the plants likely to come online by 2015 or 2016.

Currently, the United States gets 20 percent of its energy from nuclear sources, compared with 75 percent in France. Steven Chu, the Energy Secretary, has made increasing the nation’s nuclear capacity a top priority. But this kind of power doesn’t come cheap.

The first round of building would add about seven new reactors to the U.S.’s existing fleet of 104 at a likely cost of more than $40 billion. But the new plants cost so much — estimates range from $5 billion to $12 billion — that power companies could have trouble coming up with the equity they must put into the projects, typically 20% to 50% of the total. In addition, technical or regulatory problems could arise, and it isn’t certain the plants can be run profitably.

There’s also the whole political opposition thing, but given that these plants have the ability to create jobs in manufacturing and skilled labor, perhaps the recession environment will trump concerns over safety. Besides, it seems that the new generation of nuclear power plants operate differently than the one that melted at Three Mile Island, so safety may be less of an issue. There’s still that whole “disposing of nuclear waste” thing, though. Details.

photo credit: mandj98’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons