Aug 02 - The Fresno Bee

The Fresno Utility Commission's 11 members were directed by City Hall to unleash their imaginations in coming up with ideas to fix the financial mess at the Public Utilities Department.

Commission Chairman John Hutson has taken this broad charge to heart; he wants the city to consider building a nuclear power plant at the city's waste-water treatment plant west of downtown.

Hutson is urging the commission to study the feasibility of building a 400- to 600-megawatt plant as a possible long-term solution to the city's energy needs and the utilities' money problems.

On average, one megawatt can provide electricity for 1,000 homes.

Hutson says the plant could cost more than $1 billion to build.

The idea is getting a mixed reaction among some commission members and a Fresno environmentalist, who says locally produced renewable energy is a worthy goal, but nuclear power is the wrong energy source.

The waste-water treatment plant is the perfect site because of its size (about five square miles) and abundance of water (about 71 million gallons of treated water per day) for cooling the power plant, Hutson says.

The power plant's electricity could be sold at little or no cost to Fresnans, while excess electricity could be sold at higher rates to power companies such as Pacific Gas & Electric Co., he says.

The result, according to Hutson: plenty of cheap juice for Fresno air conditioners when the next heat wave hits, plenty of money to offset the need for future utility rate hikes (he estimates the plant could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year), and another environmentally safe use for the treatment plant's water.

The utility commission, created this summer by Mayor Alan Autry and the City Council, is charged with recommending solutions for financial problems at the Public Utilities Department. Autry appointed four members, and each City Council member appointed one.

Hutson, one of Autry's appointees, says Fresnans should have an open attitude toward nuclear power.

"I think Fresnans are aware that we're going to have to do things a little differently as we get to be a thriving metropolitan city," Hutson says. "I think they can appreciate looking at this idea, seeing how well it's going to work, and then make up their own minds."

Hutson says he's well aware of nuclear power's controversial past in California and the United States. But, he adds, the times are changing: Japan and France depend on nuclear power for much of their electricity needs; nuclear power plants don't foul the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses; and big strides have been made in plant safety.

"Those days of Chernobyl and stuff are things of the past," Hutson says. "They're safer than safe. You could live right next door to them."

Kevin Hall, Sierra Club Tehipite Chapter air quality chairman, says Hutson "is on the right track" in searching for reliable, affordable and locally produced supplies of energy.

But energy sources such as solar and biogeneration (tree prunings, for example) are the way to go, Hall says.

"We could get there much sooner by using the renewable energy that's available to us," Hall says.

One of the biggest hurdles to Hutson's idea is legality.

The state isn't permitting new nuclear power plants until it can figure out how to dispose of spent fuel. The moratorium on nuclear plant construction in California dates back to the 1970s.

The state's only two commercial nuclear power plants are at Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo (owned by PG&E) and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station between Los Angeles and San Diego (jointly owned by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric).

These plants generated nearly 13% of California's electricity in 2004, according to the state Energy Commission.

It's hard to gauge whether Californians are ready for more nuclear power.

"Recent developments both domestically and abroad suggest that a revival is taking place in the nuclear power industry," states "Nuclear Power in California," a March 2006 report prepared for the state Energy Commission.

Yet, the report also notes: "There are no announcements of any plans or public pronouncements of interest in constructing a new nuclear power plant in California."

Hutson says he has told most commission members of his idea and plans to pitch it at the next commission meeting Aug.9.

He emphasizes that he merely wants the commission to consider the idea. The work needed to get a nuclear power plant built in Fresno would fall to others, he says.

"If France can do it, by goodness, we can do it," Hutson says.

The reaction to Hutson's idea is mixed among his commission colleagues.

"I think it's something we should investigate," says Ashley Swearengin, an Autry appointee.

"We all came to the table to think about long-term solutions."

But two commission members worry that Hutson's idea will sidetrack the commission from its more pressing task of figuring out whether Fresno should raise garbage, sewer, water and community-sanitation rates.

Gunnar Jensen, appointed by Council Member Tom Boyajian, said he wasn't sure whether Hutson was serious or "pulling my leg" when the two recently discussed Hutson's idea.

"I think this is a very unfortunate distraction at a time when the commission is just starting to come together," Jensen says.

Building a local nuclear power plant "is an interesting notion," says Ken Newby, appointed by Council Member Brian Calhoun. But, he adds, "when you mention the word 'nuclear,' you draw a lot of emotion immediately and that can be distracting to the issues at hand. We've already got our hands full."

Council Member Cynthia Sterling, whose district includes the waste-water treatment plant, says she's "willing to listen" to Hutson. Among her reasons: the recent string of 110-degree-plus days and the havoc it wreaked on Fresnans' health.

Hutson says he has spent about 100 hours studying nuclear power issues.

He says that's enough to know there's a lot he doesn't know: for example, the Fresno plant's exact cost (Hutson says it could be more than $1 billion), how it would be administered (a municipal utilities district is one possibility), or how the legal and political hurdles would be cleared.

But, Hutson adds, he's read enough to know that Fresnans should take a fresh look at nuclear power.

Says Hutson: "I've been accused of being a liberal, left Democrat. But I certainly think this is something that deserves looking into."

The reporter can be reached at ghostetter@fresnobee.comor (559) 441-6272.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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