Crisis in Japan revives debate over nuclear power's future in Wisconsin

Mar 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Thomas Content Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Japan's nuclear crisis has brought new urgency to the debate over nuclear power -- a debate that heated up Tuesday in Wisconsin when Democrats and Republicans disputed whether the state's long-standing moratorium on nuclear plant construction should be lifted.

State Rep. Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee) said he still plans to co-sponsor a bill this year that would overturn the moratorium on new reactors, which was enacted in 1983 in the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania.

Because of the crisis in Japan, though, Honadel said he would not submit the legislation immediately.

"Out of courtesy, we should relax a little bit and let everything settle down over there and see how severe the ramifications are," Honadel said. "But I still believe we intend to introduce a bill and lift our moratorium so we can allow the debate to happen."

Lifting the moratorium isn't a sign that the state will start building reactors overnight, Honadel said.

"It simply opens the door to the nuclear debate," he said.

But two Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Josh Zepnick of Milwaukee and Rep. Brett Hulsey of Madison, said the trouble in Japan ought to trump any thoughts about lifting the moratorium.

"There is too much uncertainty with regards to the public's safety when there are unexpected events that take place as we are seeing currently in Japan," Zepnick said in a statement.

Under Wisconsin's nuclear moratorium, a reactor cannot be built "unless it is economically advantageous to ratepayers compared to feasible alternatives, and not until a federally licensed repository for high-level nuclear waste is operating with enough capacity to handle the waste from all nuclear power plants in Wisconsin," according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

There is no federally licensed facility to take spent nuclear fuel, and the Obama administration has halted plans to develop one at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

"Nuclear energy has some safety questions that need to be answered and some risk that I don't think we need to be taking right now, especially with our current reserve capacity in Wisconsin," Hulsey said.

A renewable energy bill that was proposed by Democrats in 2010 but never voted on would have relaxed the moratorium but not overturned it.

With Republicans in control of the executive and legislative branches, energy observers have been watching for a nuclear moratorium bill. Lifting the moratorium was a legislative priority for Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch in recent years when he was in the state Assembly.

Chris Schoenherr, head of the state Division of Energy Services, who is working on energy policy issues for the state, said there shouldn't be moratoriums on any form of energy.

"Every form of energy presents risks and benefits, and we believe that instead of placing a moratorium on any of them, we should seek ways to make them safer," he said.

Honadel told a gathering of electric cooperative officials in January that they could expect a nuclear moratorium bill "in four to six months," according to the Customers First coalition.

The Carbon Free-Nuclear Free Coalition began urging lawmakers in January to keep the state's moratorium in place.

State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) said he was not pushing the lift-the-moratorium bill, and he added, "I would think that after what we just went through here, it's probably on the back burner."

Building nuclear plants isn't an urgent energy priority for the state at this time, Cowles said, given that the state's electricity demand has been cut sharply by the recession and utilities have more than enough power to meet the state's energy needs.

But Honadel said he hoped the Legislature can move forward with lifting the ban.

"What's happening right now in Japan will definitely be a good learning experience as to what and what not to do. Thank goodness Wisconsin isn't sitting on the 'ring of fire,' " Honadel said. "In the core of my being, I hope this doesn't hinder the bill because it definitely should not. It's two different debates."