Oct 18 - Augusta Chronicle, The

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday the first new nuclear power plant in more than two decades could be completed by 2014 under administration proposals to reduce construction risks and speed licensing.

Mr. Bodman said the Energy Department will ask Congress to establish a $3 billion insurance pool to help investors cover interest, operating, maintenance and newly acquired construction costs stemming from regulatory delays. Premiums would be waived for utilities that place firm orders before 2009 for new power plants.

Each new reactor would be insured for as much as $500 million.

Mr. Bodman said the administration also plans to ask Congress to make it harder to stop a new reactor from operating once it is built. He said fewer appeals to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would give "more certainty in the licensing process."

"If all goes well, we could see new plants online by 2014," he told the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group.

The insurance would apply to the first two plants built from a new Westinghouse design and the first two built from a new General Electric design.

Companies would be asked to pay an insurance premium of about 10 percent of their total coverage, possibly over a period of years, Mr. Bodman said.

The insurance would cover half the costs of interest, operations and maintenance, and "newly acquired construction costs accumulated during the second, third and fourth years of a serious regulatory delay," Mr. Bodman said.

"I believe that this is the appropriate level of assistance that the government should provide to encourage new plants," he said, dismissing the need for other incentives.

"Looking for upfront incentives now sends the message that nuclear power cannot stand on its own without special government assistance. I don't think this is the right message to send to the American people, and I don't think it's true," he said.

Lobbyists are pushing for the construction of a commercial nuclear reactor at Savannah River Site.

The proposed risk insurance could improve the odds of that happening, said Mal McKibben, the executive director of Citizens for Nuclear Awareness Technology.

The proposal is needed to offset costly lawsuits that are likely to be filed by antinuclear activists against any company that builds a new reactor, Mr. McKibben said.

"I would say if that bill does not pass, you're not going to have one built anywhere any time soon," he said.

As for the likelihood of a reactor at SRS, Mr. McKibben said "it's really too early to tell."

President Bush said last month that more than 35 nuclear power plants in the United States have been stopped "because of bureaucratic obstacles." The last application for a new reactor was submitted in 1973. Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of U.S. electricity production.

Mr. Bodman said he has no specific criteria for raising the bar for an appeal to the nuclear commission, other than requiring "clear evidence that there is a failure to comply with that which was undertaken when the construction began."

"That's really what the standard, in my judgment, should be," he said.

Staff writer Josh Gelinas contributed to this report.