Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has opposed any expansion of nuclear power, including the Obama administration’s request for almost $100 million to develop small nuclear reactors capable of generating up to 300 megawatts of power, without a policy to safely store the radioactive waste.

The administration has canceled plans to open a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev., and Feinstein has said the accident earlier this year at a tsunami-damaged Japanese power plant highlights the risks of storing spent fuel on site in cooling tanks. At the Japanese nuclear facility, water levels dropped, exposing the fuel rods to the air and releasing dangerous radiation.

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee, has championed nuclear energy as a critical component of the U.S. clean-energy portfolio.

Feinstein signaled earlier this month that she was negotiating with Alexander to find a compromise that will address her concerns about nuclear waste storage and allow the small nuclear reactor program to proceed.

A meeting with Chu would suggest that Feinstein is trying to secure assurances that a single site, or multiple regional sites, for storing nuclear waste are chosen quickly so that some funding for the small-reactors program will end up in the final spending deal.

“If we can move fast, I’m all for it,” Feinstein said.

After meeting with Chu, Feinstein said they would “then begin . . . [to] put forward a little agenda of how to proceed toward this.” She praised Alexander for his work on the issue.

Feinstein said she and Alexander have already met once with Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, leaders of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to talk about a storage policy. The Energy panel already has reported out a bill (S 512) to create a program within the Energy Department focused on developing two small nuclear reactor designs. Proponents say modular reactors of a uniform design could allow production of clean nuclear energy at a fraction of the cost of building large commercial reactors.

Alexander indicated last month that he was working on a deal that would involve the collaboration of Feinstein, Bingaman and Murkowski over the next year to find a solution to the vacuum that the shuttering of Yucca Mountain created.

The Senate version of the Energy-Water Appropriations measure (HR 2354) includes no funding for small reactors, while the House bill fully funds the administration’s request. Alexander previously would not rule out the possibility of a small-reactor amendment, though he has also suggested that the issue would have to be decided in conference negotiations.

Also on Monday, Arizona Republican John McCain filed an amendment to prohibit the Energy Department from awarding any loan guarantees that would make the government subordinate to private lines of financing.

The proposal is a response to the Solyndra case, in which a California solar panel manufacturer filed for bankruptcy after receiving a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees. Under terms of the loan guarantee agreement, other creditors took precedence over taxpayers in claims for the failed company’s assets.