Official Wants Jump on Nuclear Plants Feds May Start Issuing Licenses Again

Official Wants Jump on Nuclear Plants Feds May Start Issuing Licenses Again

Jul 22 - Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

If the federal government starts handing permits to build new nuclear power plants, Public Service Commissioner Jay Blossman wants Louisiana up near the front of the line.

At Wednesday's PSC meeting, Blossman told the commission staff to study find out how the state can prepare in case the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission lifts a moratorium on new plant construction.

"There is renewed interest across the country in nuclear power, and Louisiana needs to be in line," Blossman said.

Nuclear power has been proven to be "safe, reliable and efficient," he said. "We need more of it."

"I want to go slow with this because it's an emotional issue with many people," Commissioner Foster Campbell said.

"There is no place in Louisiana so isolated that there won't be an uproar about this," he said.

The commission should look at locating an new nuclear plants close to existing ones to limit any political fallout, Campbell said.

The state has two nuclear power plants on the Mississippi River: River Bend near St. Francisville and Waterford III in St. Charles Parish upriver from New Orleans.

Lifting the moratorium on nuclear construction - no plants have been authorized since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania - is merely in the discussion stage, Blossman said.

Some experts have said that the earliest new permits could be issued is 2011, he said.

In other action related to nuclear power generation, the PSC voted to delay hearing a case that could force Entergy to return $12 million to ratepayers.

A ruling by a PSC administrative law judge would make the utility giant refund the money for buying on the open market in 2001 too much electricity and natural gas used to generate electricity.

For four years, Entergy shelved plans to boost the output of Waterford III and its nuclear plant in Grand Gulf, Miss., the judge and a PSC consultant said.

That led the company to buy the extra power.

It would not have been unsafe to boost those plants' output, said Mike Twomey, Entergy's vice-president of governmental relations for Louisiana. "It's a matter of safety," he said.

Entergy officials and a former top federal nuclear power regulator met individually with commissioners this week to explain the safety issue, Twomey said.

The PSC judge who heard the case ignored the highly technical testimony on safety matters by an Entergy employee, he said.

Twomey wanted the consultant to testify to the full commission Wednesday.

The PSC's outside lawyer in the case objected as did attorneys for large electricity customers who intervened in the case.

The Entergy consultant's information came late and if he were to testify, attorneys for the PSC and intervenors need a chance to question him, PSC consultant Mike Fontham said.

After two hours of discussion and several votes, the commission voted 3-2 to delay hearing the case until its Sept. 29 meeting.

Commission Chairwoman Irma Dixon changed her vote and joined Commissioners Jimmy Field and Foster Campbell to support the delay.

Commissioners Dale Sittig and Jay Blossman voted against the delay.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .