Fayetteville Officials Want Progress Energy to Bring Nuclear Plant to Town

Oct 14 - The News & Observer

Public officials in Fayetteville see a bright economic future, in the form of a giant cooling tower, armed guards and casks of radioactive waste.

Progress Energy hasn't even said for certain that it will build a nuclear plant -- only that it will file papers -- but it is already being courted.

Fayetteville officials want the Raleigh-based Fortune 500 utility to put a plant near their town. A nuclear plant in Cumberland County would answer the region's prayers for an economic revival, bringing much-needed jobs, property taxes and corporate philanthropy, leaders say.

"We're probably one of the poorest areas in the state," said state Sen. Larry Shaw, a Democrat from Cumberland County. "We need industry. We need a juggernaut. And this is it."

As memories of nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl fade, the not-in-my-back-yard attitude is giving way to welcome mats for an industry that critics characterize as one of the planet's most dangerous energy sources. But one town's environmental dump is another's economic treasure.

To maximize their appeal as potential nuclear sites, some leaders say they would offer generous tax breaks and other financial incentives.

When NuStart Energy Development, a nuclear industry consortium, was looking for reactor sites for its member utilities, six communities offered incentives, including one package worth

$1.1 billion. It chose sites in Mississippi and Alabama.

If the NuStart experience is any indication, North Carolina might offer incentives to compete with South Carolina and Florida, areas under consideration by Progress Energy.

Wake County Manager David Cook said Wake officials will likely have to consider whether to offer cash grants to Progress to entice it to put a second reactor at Shearon Harris. The Harris site was designed to accommodate four reactors.

Communities in the Carolinas also are lobbying Duke Power for a nuclear reactor, and the Charlotte-based utility expects to receive local and state incentives if it builds a complex, said Bryan Dolan, Duke's managing director for nuclear projects.

Dolan would not name the communities, but one is Oconee County in South Carolina, home to Duke Power's Oconee Nuclear Station, eight miles north of Clemson. Oconee officials are courting Duke Power to add reactors to the site.

"Anybody that's going to compete for something like this has to look at what they can do to make business sense for Duke to relocate there," said Jim Alexander, director of the county Economic Development Commission. "Everything from free land to moving some dirt around for them."

The local payoff could be significant. Duke Power is considering building a two-reactor plant that would have between 800 and 1,000 full-time workers.

Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant, about 25 miles outside Raleigh, employs 450 people and pays average annual salaries and benefits worth $80,000, according to the company. A nuclear plant could hire locally for such positions as welders, pipe fitters, plumbers, security personnel and firefighters.

The Shearon Harris plant is also the single biggest property tax source for Wake County; it generated nearly $10 million last year. The plant's Wake County tax bill is nine times the amount paid by Cumberland County's biggest taxpayer, Goodyear Tire Co.

Some say the tax benefits would fuel a lotto mentality among economically depressed regions.

"They'll be reaching out for just about anything to pay the bills and keep their cities alive," said Wake Forest University economist Gary Shoesmith. "They'll be filthy rich off that plant."

Any local and state incentives would come on top of the generous federal incentives included in the energy bill enacted this year. That bill sets aside up to $2 billion each to the first utilities that build nuclear plants.

Enthusiasm for nuclear power would not be a one-sided love affair. Utilities are looking for places where their employees would not be heckled by protesters, and where local officials would readily cooperate on emergency preparedness.

Community support also can be helpful during licensing hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Progress, Duke and other utilities weigh community support as a factor in selecting a site, and they interview officials and survey residents to make sure the welcome is sincere.

"The industry has standing opposers who are going to protest any new plant," said Marilyn Kray, president of NuStart Energy. "But what we'd like to know is: Is this the voice of the locality, or did they come in on a bus?"

Local government support does not necessarily mean full community support. But Cumberland County officials are counting on the economic benefits to outweigh community concerns.

The area has suffered from layoffs in the past few years. This spring, Black & Decker said it would close its Fayetteville factory, putting 675 people out of work before the end of next year.

The county unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in August, and per capital personal income for 2003, the last year for which data is available, was $27,257. That compares with statewide unemployment of 5.5 percent and per capital personal income of $28,071.

Shaw, the state senator, has written to Bill Johnson, Progress chief operating officer, requesting a meeting to discuss qualification criteria for a potential site. Shaw asked Johnson what the company would be seeking in terms of incentives, permits and road building.

"We just want to know what we're up against," Shaw said.

Utilities spend months conducting cost-benefit analyses to select a site for a nuclear plant. A major consideration is access to water to cool the reactor. Harris Lake was created to accommodate Shearon Harris.

Another issue is proximity to transmission lines and the cost of extending the transmission system, which in some cases could exceed the cost of the plant, said Joe Donahue, Progress Energy's vice president for nuclear engineering and services.

But the factor that could tip the scales could well be a community's enthusiasm for a nuclear reactor.

"This is not something far-fetched," Shaw said. "You look at a lot of communities, and they want to build prisons because it creates jobs."

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