Reactors could add thousands of jobs, supporters say
Production of small modular nuclear reactors in Callaway County could potentially tap into $25 billion in sales worldwide and provide thousands of high-paying jobs that can’t come from any other industry, according to a new study from supporters of expanded nuclear power.
Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future hired Jim Moody, a lobbyist respected for his in-depth reviews of economic issues, to review literature studying the economic impact of expanded nuclear power production in the state.
The report found that the electricity from the first such reactors would be very expensive, but the cost would fall quickly as new reactors were installed.
With the federal government ready to invest $452 million in the development of the reactors, taxpayers will subsidize much of the cost of the first reactors. Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse have made a joint application for a share of that money to develop the reactors for installation in Callaway County.
“The big deal here is to get the factory,” Moody said.
Small modular reactors would differ from standard nuclear plants because components would be fabricated in a factory that Westinghouse representatives have promised they would construct in Missouri if the technology proves viable.
Gov. Jay Nixon last week created a task force of county officials in Central Missouri to plan for the infrastructure needed to support the project.
The first such reactors would produce electricity at a cost of about 12 cents a kilowatt hour. In Columbia, customers pay a retail rate of 9.44 cents per kilowatt hour for low consumption, with the rate jumping to 12.77 per kilowatt hour after that. Moody said consumers would be protected from extremely high rates by early subsidies and consumer protections from the Public Service Commission.
Missouri needs the jobs because too many of the state’s largest employers are consumer-oriented businesses such as hospitals, colleges or retail stores, Moody said.
Missouri needs jobs that generate products and bring wealth into the state instead of just moving money around, said Irl Scissors, executive director of Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future.
According to Moody’s report, only four companies in the top 25 Missouri employers meet that criteria — Boeing, Cerner, AT&T and Ford.
“If your largest employers in your cities and state are universities and hospitals, it is not a formula for economic success,” Scissors said.
Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future is a group funded in large part by utilities that promoted legislation to allow customers to be billed in advance for costs of putting a new nuclear power plant in Callaway County. That legislation never passed, and their main lobbying antagonist, the Fair Electric Rate Action Fund, isn’t opposed to nuclear development as long as customers aren’t asked to pay in advance, said Chris Roepe, executive director of the group.
“If they are going to do it with private money and their own money, we don’t want to stop that,” Roepe said. “If they are going to come with their hand out to customers, and this is all on top of them asking for a 14.6 percent rate increase in hot weather, that’s another question.”
A typical nuclear power plant can generate more than 1 gigawatt of electricity, while the Westinghouse plan for its small reactors calls for units that would produce about 225 megawatts. The idea for small reactors is attractive to utilities because they would be cheaper to build and would begin producing power faster than a standard reactor.
Each installed small reactor could create 13,000 jobs, according to a study cited by Moody in his analysis of economic studies.
Many of those jobs would be in the production plant that would be in Central Missouri if the reactors prove to be popular, he said.
“It is an unprecedented opportunity to lead in a new industry,” Moody said.
-Rudi Keller
