AP: New nuclear plant still in play in Iowa

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110409/NEWS01/704099861#nuclear-plant-still-in-play-in-iowa

Published Saturday April 9, 2011

DES MOINES (AP) — Japan’s nuclear disaster has chilled support for nuclear projects across the United States. But in Iowa, where the state’s largest utility is considering a new nuclear power plant, some momentum has continued to the surprise of critics and some supporters.

MidAmerican Energy has proposed building a plant with one or more small modular nuclear reactors that could be on line as early as 2020. It would become the state’s second nuclear facility.

The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, swamping the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex and causing an ongoing nuclear crisis, have put a damper on talk of nuclear ventures in other U.S. states.

But in Iowa last week, legislative leaders kept alive a proposal that would help make a plant here more feasible financially. They placed on a list of pending business a measure that would allow MidAmerican to begin billing customers in advance for the cost of the project. That prevented the measure from expiring for lack of action.

“For some reason, it seems like the Fukushima accident really hasn’t happened in Iowa,” said one surprised opponent, Michele Boyd, who focuses on nuclear safety for the Washington-based Physicians for Social Responsibility. “It has not affected the politics in Iowa, but everywhere else people are saying now is not the time to build a new reactor.”

FULL story at link.

[kristopher]

1. Oh brother...

this is considered "momentum"?

"But in Iowa last week, legislative leaders kept alive a proposal that would help make a plant here more feasible financially. They placed on a list of pending business a measure that would allow MidAmerican to begin billing customers in advance for the cost of the project. That prevented the measure from expiring for lack of action."

So they are going to start charging customers for reactors that haven't even started going through the NRC review yet?

Can you say "another Repuke financial scam"?

"Construction Work In Progress for power plant construction first became a controversial issue in Indiana in the late 1970s when the Public Service Company of Indiana (now PSI Energy) saw the projected cost to construct the ill-fated Marble Hill nuclear plant located near Madison, Indiana skyrocket from under $1 billion to over $7 billion. PSI-sponsored CWIP bills were defeated in the General Assembly in 1979, 1980 and 1982. An attempt to circumvent the legislative will was also defeated when the Attorney General ruled PSI’s so-called “trended rates” proposal to the IURC to be unlawful because it was no more than CWIP by another name.

PSI repeatedly sought passage of power plant CWIP because Wall Street investors had become increasingly skeptical of the viability of the Marble Hill nuclear plant due to construction problems, cost overruns, safety concerns, and reduced demand for electricity. As a result, financing the project through the sale of stocks and bonds became increasingly difficult and expensive. Indeed, after Governor Robert Orr endorsed the report of a Citizens Task Force concluding that it made more sense to cancel Marble Hill rather than finance its completion with ratepayer money, PSI abandoned the project due to its inability to secure the necessary capital from private investors.

The General Assembly rejected power plant CWIP three times because of intense and widespread opposition from all classes of utility customers. This opposition resulted primarily from strong ratepayer resistance to becoming involuntary financiers of Marble Hill, a project which most PSI customers viewed as unneeded and unwanted but one whose rapidly escalating costs they would ultimately have to pay if it was completed. In 2002 the legislature was unmoved by appeals from CAC and others to reject CWIP once again."
http://www.citact.org/newsite/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=272