Fulton Sun

Serving Callaway County communities since 1875.

www.fultonsun.com

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The pros - more power, economic stimulus

According to Mike Cleary, communications director for AmerenUE, the number one reason why the second unit should be built is to provide more power for the company's customers.

“The reasons we are considering it are that we anticipate a 30 percent increase in demand for power in Missouri in the next couple of decades and we will need another plant in the 2018-2020 timeframe to keep up with that demand,” he said.

Because nuclear power is the cheapest way to produce the amount of electricity that Ameren is aiming for, Cleary said that building the unit in Callaway would be the best option.

“Nuclear power is a lower cost generating source than any other source of base load power production, which is a plant that can produce power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he said. “The only other options would be to build a peak load plant - which only produces power during peak usage - or another type of plant such as coal.

“The production cost of electricity in 2007 was 1.6 cents per kilowatt hour for nuclear, 2.47 for coal, 6.78 for natural gas and 10.62 for oil.”

The increase in power production is not the only perceived benefit of a second reactor.

According to Cleary, making the decision to build the plant would also create hundreds of new jobs in Callaway County.

“We estimate that during the peak of construction there would be 2500 contractors working on the project with a peak annual payroll of $400 million,” he said. “We also estimate it would create 400 new permanent employees with a $30 million annual pay in addition to the employees that were there for the first unit.”

The project would also be an economic benefit for state and local government, bringing in millions of dollars in tax revenue.

“It would generate an excess of $115 million in local property taxes during the proposed construction period,” Cleary said.

“When it's online, the taxes are assessed statewide and we will be assessed $90 million in property taxes with $17 million distributed to Callaway County.”

The cons - safety and nuclear waste disposal

Kay Drey, a board member of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, is one of the biggest proponents of the proposed second unit.

She recognizes the allure that a second plant has, but warns of the safety issues that go along with nuclear power.

“It's totally understandable that people want the jobs and the effect that it will have on the whole county, but I think a lot of people do not realize the dangers that the plant possesses,” Drey said.

One of the main issues that Ameren UE will face, and is facing currently with Unit 1, is waste disposal.

The low level nuclear waste that was produced at the Callaway Plant used to be sent to a site in Barnwell South Carolina for disposal, but earlier this year the site closed its doors to sources outside of the Northeast.

This means that now, all low level waste must be stored on site in Callaway County.

Drey said Ameren and other nuclear operators in the Midwest have been working on building a site to house this waste, but little progress has been made.

“I find it hard to believe that any state's legislature will say ‘go ahead and send us your low level waste,'” she said. “It's not just hot but has a long half-life.”

On top of a inability to remove low level waste from the current facility, Ameren also faces a challenge disposing of its high level waste, such as spent fuel rods.

Yucca Mountain is a proposed nuclear reprocessing facility in Nevada that could process high level waste to reduce its radioactivity and house the material.

It would be the only location where Ameren could send its high level waste, and currently the design for the site has yet to be approved by the NRC.

This means that for at least the first few years of the second unit's operations, all nuclear waste would have to be housed on site in Callaway County.

For Drey, this could lead to many problems down the road.

“It is irresponsible for us to generate this stuff when there is no solution to dispose of the waste,” Drey said. “We were all taught that they will figure out a solution and that there are no unsolvable problems, but it's been 65 years since nuclear energy has been introduced and they haven't solved the problem yet.”

Drey claimed that a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a terrorist attack would cause massive ecological and health problems for a very large area.

“Someone could get in with a plastic explosive through a metal detector and

drop it into the plant and that would be the end of Callaway County and the rest of us,” she said.

Cleary, on the other hand, maintained that the facility, and any new structures built at the Callaway Plant, is extremely safe.

“It's the most secure industrial facility you will find anywhere,” he said. “It's

got a significant security force and barricades and detection devices to prevent intruders. “The existing plant is also safe from the standpoint of external hazards such as weather or a plane crash. Computer simulations indicate that our building at unit one could withstand these disasters.”

Email this story

Back to index

Printer friendly version

All Contents Copyright © 2008 The Fulton Sun. All rights reserved.
AP stories Copyright © 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Click for copyright details.
Comments or questions? Contact us.