This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 14, 2011 - Some policymakers and observers involved in a push to build a new nuclear reactor in Callaway County say the crisis at a Japanese nuclear reactor won't have much impact on legislative action in the Show Me State.
A Senate committee held a 6.5 hour hearing just two days before the Japanese earthquake on Friday on whether to allow Ameren and a consortium of energy companies to recapture from customers the cost of a site permit. Such a move requires legislative action because of a 1976 ballot initiative that restricts utility companies from passing on construction costs to consumers before power is generated. There is no timetable as of Monday for legislation to be voted onto the Senate floor.
In an interview with the Beacon, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said he doesn't think Japan's situation will influence the debate over site permit legislation.
"We knew and we know that we're in an earthquake alley. And I'm sure that was all debated out when we first located the first reactor in the Callaway area," said Crowell, who is sponsoring a site permit bill with a funding stream for the Office of Public Counsel. "I think we're going to focus more on the actual text of the legislation and keep our prayers and thoughts with the people of Japan right now."
Crowell said there are numerous differences between nuclear plants in the United States and others around the world. For one, he said the problems are emanating from failure of backup power sources to cool the Japanese reactors down. He said American plants have "triple redundancy" of power sources.
"If I thought Japan was going to impact this, we would be talking about shutting down" the current nuclear reactor in Callaway County, he said. "And I don't think anyone is advocating shutting down Callaway."
Rep. Jeanie Riddle, who is sponsoring site permit legislation, said individuals who may be against nuclear power "may be able to capitalize what's happened in Japan."
"But overall, the people who are in favor of nuclear ... if they have the facts and the information out there will want us to move forward with this," said Riddle, R-Mokane. "Because the site permit specifically looks at seismic tables and the flood plain and all of those safety factors."
Riddle said other "progress issues" have run into snags in the past, but that doesn't mean people "stop learning and stop doing."
"There are things we still have to learn and I'm sure the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] is going to be particular in dotting every 'I' and crossing ever 'T,'" Riddle said. "That's federal, and we'll have to see what happens with that."
"We've had problems with space travel, with space exploration," she added. "We had the Challenger and it was devastating and heartbreaking. It didn't stop our space exploration. This energy issue is not only just energy, but it's our security as well and our economic development. I don't believe that this should stop our site permit, which is looking at all of those factors - the site analysis, the safety preparedness, everything - to make sure that the site in Callaway is safe to put a second reactor."
Scott Bond, manager of nuclear development for Ameren Missouri, told the Beacon's Dale Singer that no decision has been made yet about construction of a second nuclear plant in Callaway County, but that the events in Japan will have no effect on what the utility projects to be Missouri's electricity needs in the future.
"I would hope there would not be a rush to judgment about the events in Japan," he said. "I hope we get all the facts we need to make the decisions as we move ahead."
Irl Scissors, the executive director of Missourians for a Balanced Energy Future, said his group still thinks nuclear power is viable.
"Should there be a second reactor built in Callaway, it will take place in the next six to 10 years," said Scissors. "So there are lots of lessons to be learned and gleaned from Japan."
A spokesman for Gov. Jay Nixon -- who endorsed the site permit push if it contains certain consumer protections -- didn't provide the Beacon with a comment by press time. A call to Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, who also sponsored site permit legislation, was also not returned by press time.
Hitting The Brakes
While the funding for the public counsel was at issue at the hearing of the Senate Veterans' Affairs, Emerging Issues, Pensions and Urban Affairs Committee, environmentalists questioned whether nuclear power was cost-effective or practical.
One person testifying against any effort to recoup the costs of the site permit was Ed Smith of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. In a telephone interview on Monday, Smith said he's not sure how the Japanese crisis would influence the pursuit of the site permit. But he said there would be "a tremendous amount of backlash" if Ameren and the consortium obtained that early site permit and started pushing for constructing another nuclear plant.
"We're going to need to figure out how our leaders at the national level are going to assess the need for nuclear as part of our energy portfolio moving forward," Smith said. "I think we'll have to figure out what Ameren's response to this is going to be. I obviously think that it makes the case for not pursuing nuclear even that much stronger."
Smith was referring to reports that federal lawmakers might be considering a moratorium on constructing nuclear power plants. Politico, for instance, reported that Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., wants a temporary freeze on permitting for new plants until more was known about what caused Japan's reactor issues.
"Nuclear power is risky several times over," Smith said. "Not only is it dangerous and risky to build and operate as we're seeing right now in Japan, the economic risks in building a second nuclear power plant are incredibly dangerous as well."
When asked if federal lawmakers may play a role in changing the process to build nuclear reactors, Crowell said he doesn't want to "speculate on what the federal government may or may not do."
"I would not put it past the federal government to take foolish actions," Crowell said. "I thought it was foolish for President (Barack) Obama to put a moratorium in place for off-shore drilling and every Missourian is paying the cost of that foolishness at that gas pumps right now."
Joan Bray -- a former Democratic state senator and the chairwoman of the Consumers Council of Missouri -- said Monday morning that Japan's situation will prompt the federal government to re-examine its policies. And that, she said, could result in more "boxes to be checked off."
"You have to think about it," said Bray. "You have to take that into consideration under the current events. I have to believe it's going to give pause to the discussion. But I don't know. It will be interesting to see."
Bray's group backed Crowell's legislation to provide a ratepayer-funded stream of roughly $3 million for the public counsel. When asked whether the Japanese crisis would make her group rethink support for the measure, Bray said it doesn't "change our approach."
"We didn't like the idea of changing the law the public created. ... We only went along with it out of political reality and having allies and getting something out of the deal for consumers," said Bray. "If they insist still on doing something, we still want our end of the deal. If they kind of withdraw or hold back on proceeding, so be it. We like the idea of not going forward with not breaking the public's vote on the anti-CWIP law."
But Smith said there could be risk for politicians to move forward with site permit legislation so soon after Japan's nuclear crisis.
"That's something that we could very well see coming into the 2012 election," Smith said. "Not only is this going to change the narrative of the presidential election in our nation's energy prospects, it's going to change the narrative of state elections as well."
"People are going to have to vote on this if it makes it out of committee, especially in the Senate," he added. "Organizations like mine and some of the other environmental groups that do legislative scoring -- we'll be making this an issue in 2012."
