Aug 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Elizabeth Souder The Dallas Morning News


Several anti-nuclear groups and state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, have won a seat at the table when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides whether to grant Energy Future Holdings a license to expand a North Texas nuclear power plant.

The decision means the NRC must hold a contested hearing after staff members have finished reviewing the company's application for a license to build and operate two new reactors at the Comanche Peak plant in Glen Rose.

The review is expected to take until 2012, and the hearing could delay a final decision on expansion of the plant by a few months, according to NRC spokesman Scott Burnell.

Company spokeswoman Ashley Monts also said Luminant, the power plant operating unit of EFH, had anticipated a contested hearing, so the board's decision doesn't change Luminant's schedule.

"I'm very pleased," said Burnam. "The only reason we're doing it this way is so that people can make a lot of money," he said, of building nuclear power plants rather than other types of facilities.

Nuclear plants can be expensive to build but relatively cheap to operate.

To become an intervenor in a case, a group or individual must point out potential problems with the license application, and the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which reviews the complaints, must agree that the arguments are worth considering.

The groups -- the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, Public Citizen, and True Cost of Nukes -- and Burnam made 19 contentions, and the licensing board agreed that two of the complaints should be addressed:

--That Luminant failed to consider what might happen to the new reactors if there were a severe accident at one of the existing reactors.

--That the company failed to explore alternatives to nuclear power, including "combinations of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, with technological advances in storage methods and supplemental use of natural gas, to create baseload power," according to the board's decision.

Luminant said company officials are pleased that most of the contentions were dismissed, and it said the reactors will be safe.

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