http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/12404409.htm


By David Sneed
The Tribune

SACRAMENTO - There is renewed interest in nuclear power in the United States, but experts say not to expect any new nuclear plants in California anytime soon, if ever.

At a daylong hearing Tuesday before the state Energy Commission in Sacramento, the owners of California's two operating nuclear plants -- Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo, and San Onofre, north of San Diego -- told the commission that they have no plans to build new nuclear plants.

The Bush administration, however, strongly favors constructing new nuclear plants, in part to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

Several potential sites in the Southeast for new facilities have been identified. The recently signed federal energy bill provides loan guarantees, tax credits and additional insurance for new nuclear plants.

The administration's Nuclear Power 2010 program calls for at least one new nuclear power plant in the United States early in the next decade, said Rebecca Smith-Kevern with the federal Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology.

"The prospect of new nuclear power plants in the United States is looking better than it has in a generation," she said. "We are very hopeful that there will be an order for a new nuclear plant soon."

Adding a sense of urgency to the construction of new nuclear plants is the growing consensus among scientists that greenhouse gas emissions from plants that burn fossil fuels are causing climate change.

Not everyone agreed, however, that nuclear power is a necessary component in the energy mix.

Environmentalists and some state regulators say that renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, could replace the 4,000 megawatts of power produced by Diablo Canyon and San Onofre.

"There are superior ways to deal with global warming than nuclear power," said Robert Kinosian with the California Public Utilities Commission.

Amory Lovins with the Rocky Mountain Institute said that nuclear power has been heavily subsidized and is not competitive with renewable energy and other technologies.

"You can make a corpse jump with a defibrillator, but ultimately markets must prevail," he said.

A host of challenges

Nuclear power also faces a host of other serious challenges in California. The most significant is the issue of disposing of highly radioactive used reactor fuel. California prohibits the construction of any new nuclear plants until the waste problem is solved.

Delays in the construction of a national repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert mean that the disposal problem will not be solved for another decade at least. In addition, highly radioactive spent fuel will have to remain at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre until a repository can open.

Other challenges facing nuclear power in California include:

• Terrorism. Although nuclear power plants are heavily guarded, they remain potential terrorist targets. As the repository at Yucca has been delayed, spent fuel pools, which are outside a plant's containment domes, have become more densely packed with highly radioactive assemblies. Those pools are considered the most vulnerable part of any nuclear plant.

Gordon Thompson, a nuclear safety expert, told the commission that returning the pools to their original low-density configurations by devising new storage solutions should be a top priority.

Power plant operators and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission disagree. They believe that the spent fuel threat is exaggerated and that they have the ability to stabilize the pools in the event of an accident or terrorist attack.

• Equipment replacements. Both of California's nuclear plants face unanticipated replacements of key components such as steam generators, turbines and reactor vessel heads.

These items will cost state electricity ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars per replacement. They also will require prolonged shutdowns of the plants, temporarily disrupting the state's electrical supply.

• Aging work forces. The average Diablo Canyon employee is 48 years old. The bulk of the plant's work force is expected to reach retirement in the next decade or so. The San Onofre plant is experiencing similar problems. Plant operators say they have anticipated the problem and have hiring plans and training to replace those workers.

• License renewal. Diablo Canyon's operating licenses will expire in 2025. The utility plans to study whether it will apply for license renewal. However, nuclear power experts expect all operating plants to apply for renewal.

Federal law pre-empts state law in nuclear matters, and the NRC is typically the sole decision maker in license renewals. But state officials put the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the utilities on notice Tuesday that they expect to play a significant role in the renewal process.

Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, asked the NRC to incorporate a full review of new seismic information into the renewal process and to make the Energy Commission a partner in the relicensing process.

Kinosian, of the state utilities commission, said his agency wants PG&E to apply to it before it applies to the NRC for license renewal of Diablo Canyon. This will allow for greater public participation, he said.

• Marine impacts. Cooling systems used by nuclear plants use enormous amounts of ocean water. That causes significant damage to the ocean by killing fish larvae and heating billions of gallons of water a day by more than 20 degrees.

Michael Thomas with the Regional Water Quality Control Board in San Luis Obispo said trying to find a scientifically sound way to offset that damage is a "very difficult and extraordinarily contentious issue."

Biologists hired by the state believe that requiring utilities to fund the establishment of a series of marine reserves along the state's coastline is the best solution.

Biologists hired by PG&E disagree. They say the cooling water damage to the ocean is exaggerated.