2nd reactor will generate jobs, backers tell the NRC
Missouri desperately needs the jobs that construction of a second nuclear reactor at AmerenUEs Callaway plant would create, project supporters told federal regulators Wednesday.
Officials with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission were in Fulton, Mo., to discuss environmental issues the agency should consider as it reviews Amerens license application for the new reactor at the Callaway site.
Project supporters, however, focused many of their comments on the projected economic impact construction of the 1,600-megawatt reactor is expected to have on the state. Ameren estimates that building it will create about 3,000 construction jobs to make it the largest single construction project in the states history.
“In these uncertain economic times, we need this kind of project,” said Mike Downing, executive director of the Missouri CORE Partnership, a central
Missouri economic development group.
Area labor leaders and chamber of commerce officials echoed the sentiment, saying Ameren is already supporting the local economy during tough times by providing high-paying jobs at the Callaway plant.
But those jobs arent enough to allay concerns of some about radioactive waste generated at the Callaway plant.
Since its startup, the Callaway plant 10 miles southeast of Fulton has stored spent fuel in a 30-foot-deep pool of water on site. AmerenUE also has been storing low-level radioactive waste at the plant site since a facility at Barnwell, S.C., banned out-of-state waste in 2007.
Project opponents told commission members they didnt support on-site storage of radioactive waste, especially when it seems there will never be a national repository for high-level radioactive waste.
Many cited the governments moving target to start construction of a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
“Like a desert mirage, it hovers over the horizon but never materializes,” said Mark Haim, director of Missourians for Safe Energy.
Other project opponents objected to supporters description of nuclear power as “clean” or “green.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to issue a draft environmental impact statement for the project in 2010 and could issue a final decision a year later.
Ameren officials have said they wont make a decision whether to build the plant until 2011 but submitted the paperwork to the NRC to be eligible for federal loan guarantees.
Meanwhile, Ameren is working to repeal the so-called Construction Work in Progress law, which prevents utilities from passing costs of a new plant on to consumers until the plant is operating.
The utility hopes to fund the Callaway project through such a rate increase. But environmentalists and consumer groups are battling legislation that would allow such a move.
