Brownville Nuclear Plant May Get Reprieve to 2034

Oct 29 - Omaha World - Herald

Not too long ago, 2004 was considered the year Nebraska Public Power District might have chosen to prematurely shut down its nuclear plant.

Now it looks like this will be the year the district decides to keep Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Neb., open an additional 20 years.

After 10 months of study, NPPD's management will ask its board to seek federal approval to operate the nuclear plant until 2034. The board is expected to vote on the license application next month.

Without the license extension, the plant would have to shut down by 2014.

The decision is significant to electric rates across Nebraska.

Replacing Cooper with a 600-megawatt coal-fired plant would cost as much as $1 billion more than keeping the nuclear plant open, according to the study. That expense would have translated into significant rate increases for people in 87 of Nebraska's 93 counties.

Being able to recommend that Cooper stay open is a welcome milestone, said Bill Fehrman, chief executive officer at NPPD.

"It feels really good," he said, "to see what the good people at Cooper have done to make this plant become much better for us and for the state."

The license extension effort reflects the progress Cooper has made toward meeting tough federal goals imposed after management problems were found at the plant.

The station had been ranked as one of the nation's poorestperforming nuclear plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has lifted Cooper from that category, but has stipulated that Cooper remain under close review. A federal inspection this week may be the last needed before the NRC concludes that Cooper has met its targets for improvement.

While the plant's performance has grabbed most of the headlines, economics had been the real threat to its continued existence. The plant had been costing more to operate than it was earning, and it was the consumers who were absorbing the extra cost.

That trend has reversed, Fehrman said, and costs are dropping.

But more important, he said, is that Cooper has demonstrated it is capable of operating reliably. The plant ran 321 days in a row without having to shut down, breaking a record set 25 years ago.

Past problems with reliability and cost at Cooper had been enough that NPPD's wholesale customers were prepared to see the nuclear plant close if necessary.

Bruce Pontow, who heads Nebraska Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative, agreed that Cooper has turned things around enough to merit a look at license extension. The cooperative serves 22 smaller utilities and makes up NPPD's single largest customer.

The economic significance of the decision to relicense Cooper can't be overstated, said Terry Giles, manager of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce.

"This is just very good for all of southeast Nebraska," Giles said.

Cooper provides some of the best-paying jobs in the area to its 788 employees. Its $50 million payroll is a major driver of the economy. And its employees, Giles said, are among the many civic volunteers who make local communities run well.

The license extension process will cost about $12 million.

If Cooper is successfully relicensed, Fehrman said NPPD will be in a better position to meet tougher environmental standards on utility emissions. While nuclear plants generate highly radioactive spent fuel, they don't pollute the air or generate global warming gases as coal plants do.

The NRC already has extended the license of Nebraska's other nuclear plant, at Fort Calhoun, which is operated by Omaha Public Power District.