Southern states are in bidding war for nuclear power plants

Southern states are in bidding war for nuclear power plants

Aug 6 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Three decades after U.S. utilities quit trying to build more nuclear power plants in the face of rising costs and environmental concerns, a bidding war of sorts is emerging among Southern states eager to land the next generation of nuclear power plants.

State and local officials in Alabama gathered this week near the site of TVA's unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant to try to convince the NuStart Energy consortium of utilities and engineering firms to build a new nuclear plant in Hollywood, Ala.

Neil Wade, director of the Alabama Development Office, said the state will offer tax breaks and other assistance to try to lure NuStart to build at the Bellefonte site.

"We want to be aggressive and put in an incentive package that can win this project," Mr. Wade said during a meeting with NuStart officials.

Alabama will face competition from five other states also eager to attract the first major new nuclear plant in decades. Construction of a new plant is expected to create 2,000 to 3,000 temporary construction jobs and permanently add hundreds more.

Shelia Shepard, vice president for the Jackson County Economic Development Authority in Scottsboro, said Alabama has proven its commitment to incentives with the automobile assembly plants it has attracted over the past decade.

"Our governor and legislature are very committed to new industry and new jobs and we will do whatever we can to get this project," Ms. Shepard said. "We have had overwhelming support for this project so far."

NuStart wants states to submit their incentive offers by. Already, both Mississippi and Louisiana have said they will offer tax incentives to try to get the nuclear plant.

The new design is intended to be simpler and less expensive than existing nuclear power plants. But after costly delays and project overruns in the 1970s and 1980s, most utilities are still cautious about committing to a new nuclear plant.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said NuStart has selected rural, pro-nuclear areas to try to build the new plant but Wall Street has remained skeptical.

"No utility is interested in building a nuclear plant without massive government subsidies," he said. "The new energy bill gives all kinds of tax breaks to the nuclear industry and now NuStart wants even more tax breaks from state and local governments."

Dr. Smith said constructing a new plant "will create short-term jobs and long-term radioactive liabilities.

"The economic development people are focusing only on the short-term job gains and not the long-term liabilities and terrorist threats these plants present," he said.

But U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said this week a new plant at Bellefonte could be a big boost for Jackson County. Mr. Sessions insisted that nuclear power can be clean, safe and economical.

"We have 103 nuclear plants in the United States and none has been started within 30 years," he said.

For its part, TVA is contributing its site at Bellefonte with the hope the developed, riverfront property will be chosen by NuStart for the plant. TVA halted construction at the twin-reactor Bellefonte plant in 1988 and will begin to write off most of the equipment in the unfinished plant because it is now considered worthless.

NuStart will narrow the list of potential new nuclear plant sites from six to two by the end of September, officials said. The consortium said the earliest date any of the sites could have a workable nuclear plant is 2015.

By Hollice Smith and Dave Flessner

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