Industry seeks 50 nuke plants

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's nuclear utilities are preparing to build at least 50 power plants in the next 20 years, the industry's top officials announced today.

Emboldened by a President Bush's pro-nuclear national energy strategy released last week -- and fresh praise in a personal greeting by Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday -- nuclear industry executives unveiled a "bold new vision" that would roughly increase by 50 percent the number of U.S. nuclear power plants, currently 103.

For Nevada, that means the national nuclear waste dump proposed for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would need to store about 50 percent more waste, said Joe Colvin, president and chief executive of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobby group. Current designs under consideration include space for about 77,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.

"We have studied that particular site more than any site in the universe, and there hasn't been anything to make us decide that we can't protect the environment from the waste for tens of thousands of years," Colvin said in an interview today.

Congress in 1987 selected Yucca Mountain to be the national high-level waste repository. The Energy Department has been studying it for years and is expected to recommend the site to the president later this year. Nevada policymakers oppose the plan.

Opening Yucca is a key to a "renaissance" in nuclear power, industry officials said. No electric company has ordered a nuclear plant since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. That's partly because of public anxiety, but also the high cost of building plants, strict regulations and the issue of where to put the waste.

But times have changed: The nation now faces an energy shortage, industry officials said. The Bush administration and key lawmakers are saying that nuclear power is not just an option, but a necessity.

"My, what a mistake we made," by not building more nuclear power plants, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told the gathering of nuclear officials today.

That was music to the ears of about 400 industry executives who gathered for the annual conference at a Washington hotel this week. Attendees buzzed about a new optimism in the industry during breaks and general sessions.

Cheney offered a personal message Tuesday. Nuclear power "is a very important part of our energy policy today in the United States," said Cheney, who received a standing ovation.

It won't be easy to jump-start a flagging industry, officials acknowledge. But the nation's nuclear utility companies are preparing to build plants that could produce another 50,000 megawatts of electricity, Colvin said. That's roughly 50 new plants, if utilities decide to stick with building large-scale reactors.

The nation needs that power as population and electricity demands rise, Colvin said.

The nation's 103 reactors produce nearly 20 percent of the nation's electricity. Given future shifts in how energy is produced, nuclear plants could fuel about 23 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020.

Another option: Build more, smaller reactors that use new technology, such as a "pebble bed" reactor, which produces about one-tenth of a traditional 1,100-megawatt plant, Colvin said.

"It's doable," Colvin said about building all the plants. "And it is not only doable, it's a necessity."

Colvin outlined a variety of tasks ahead for the industry, including maintain what has been efficient, safe power production since Three Mile Island; increase public and congressional support for nuclear energy; and refill a talent pool that has sagged over the years by encouraging young scientists to pursue nuclear fields.

By 2020, nuclear energy will be "widely recognized as a safe, reliable, competitive and environmentally sound source of electricity, and adding value to our quality of life."

In a roundtable discussion, officials from other sectors weighed in on the plan.

Investors are concerned about some financial risks, including the liability created by nuclear waste, but in general, "they're not scared of nuclear power," said Douglas Kimmelman, chairman of Goldman Sachs' Global Power business. "Nuclear utilities are generating significant cash flows from those operations."

Another player, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is getting ready to make "fair, tough" reviews of new nuclear plant proposals, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said.

Nuclear utilities face a number of tasks before they could start constructing plants, which takes four years or more. Utilities have to first obtain sites -- no easy task given widespread "not-in-my-back yard" opposition to plants. Then utilities face environmental reviews, licensing and construction permitting.

"There is a need for the NRC to prepare for the work," Meserve told the industry officials, adding that the NRC could not play a "promotional role" in touting nuclear power. "We believe we are up to the task."