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Article
published October 7, 2001
Regional News
Crunch
energizes nuclear industry
Davis-Besse
seeks extension of license
Ohio
Sen. George Voinovich says he wants to help jump-start the
nuclear industry. THE BLADE/DIANE
HIRES |
By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF
WRITER
OAK HARBOR - America’s energy crunch could
breathe new life into the nation’s aging nuclear plants, including
two about 25 miles from Toledo.
FirstEnergy Corp. has
notified federal regulators it intends to seek a 20-year extension
of its license to operate the Davis-Besse nuclear plant along State
Rt. 2 in Ottawa County.
Davis-Besse’s original 40-year
license is due to expire April 22, 2017, but would be extended until
2037 if the utility’s application -- scheduled to be filed with the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December, 2004 -- is approved.
The review takes about two years. FirstEnergy got the process moving
in May by filing a notice of intent.
Detroit Edison Co.’s
Fermi II nuclear plant in northern Monroe County, which went on line
in the summer of 1985, is not yet eligible to apply for an
extension, although spokesman Guy Cerullo said that will be a
"viable option" when the time comes. Nuclear plants must first pass
the midway point of their license before an extension can be sought.
Fermi II’s license is due to expire March 20, 2025.
The
industry’s confidence is running high, despite heightened security
after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.
The regulatory commission has all nuclear plants on
high alert until further notice, deploying measures beyond the
customary armed guards, badge-entry locks, and concrete barriers.
Details are classified information that government officials are not
allowed to discuss, Jan Strasma, the regulatory spokesman,
said.
Spokesmen for Davis-Besse and Fermi II declined to
elaborate but acknowledged tours have been suspended and guards
instructed to be more inquisitive about people coming on the
property.
The Coast Guard has declared Lake Erie recreational
boating off limits within two miles of Davis-Besse and Fermi II
until further notice. The first violation is a warning; the second
could result in a fine as high as $10,000.
Security concerns
aside, the nuclear industry - once viewed as America’s energy of the
future - has been mired in a 23-year slump. Orders for plants halted
in 1978 as investors got fed up with cost overruns, inflation, and
construction delays. About a dozen projects that were begun between
1974 and 1978 were scrapped.
The wave of post-1979
regulations after the Three Mile Island accident near Harrisburg,
Pa., made the prospect of such ventures even less profitable. The
last plant to open was Watts Bar 1 in Tennessee in 1996, but that
facility got its construction permit in 1973 and took 23 years to
build.
Now, with the country still struggling to meet its
energy demands, utilities such as FirstEnergy figure there’s no
reason to shut down perfectly good nuclear plants.
Six of
America’s 103 operating reactors have been issued 20-year
extensions, starting last year. Another 14 applications are pending.
The Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry’s chief
lobbyist group, expects 26 more applications to be submitted over
the next five or six years, meaning that before the end of the
decade nearly half of the nation’s plants could have their licenses
extended.
"It’s definitely an industry trend," Mr. Cerullo
noted. "If these plants are still in good shape, we can keep
operating them for a number of years."
Steve Kerekes, the
energy institute spokesman, said the original licenses were set for
40 years because that was the length of time estimated to recoup
investments. "There’s nothing magical about 40 years in terms of a
design standpoint," agreed Richard Wilkins, FirstEnergy
spokesman.
Government officials acknowledge the 40-year time
frame was "certainly somewhat arbitrary," Mr. Strasma
said.
Extensions are limited to 20 years and require proof of
reliability, as well as a utility’s detailed schedule for replacing
equipment often enough to keep plants running
safely.
Davis-Besse rebounded from its darkest hour - a
12-minute interruption of feedwater to steam generators on June 9,
1985 - to score high on most of its evaluations in the 1990s. On
March 21, 1997, the regulatory commission’s regional administrator
even lauded the plant as "one of the better, if not the best," in
his eight-state jurisdiction that includes 28 Midwestern nuclear
plants.
The industry’s biggest obstacle continues to be
uncertainty over what to do with spent fuel from nuclear plant
reactors, Mr. Kerekes said.
He and other nuclear advocates
expect that, by year’s end, the White House will receive scientific
justification from the U.S. Department of Energy to designate
Nevada’s Yucca Mountain the national repository. But even if that
happens and the Bush administration promptly moves forward with it,
Yucca Mountain is not expected to be ready until at least 2010 - 12
years behind schedule. The cost: a staggering $50
billion.
"What Wall Street wants to see is progress on the
nuclear-waste management side," said Mr. Kerekes, predicting the
government soon will receive the first application to build a
nuclear plant since 1978. "We don’t expect a slew of orders in the
next 18 to 24 months, but we do expect a few new nuclear plant
orders in over the next four or five years," he said.
As Mr.
Wilkins said, it’s a "no-brainer" to seek first a 20-year extension
to an existing facility instead of coming up with billions of
dollars to build from scratch. Davis-Besse was designed to hold up
to two other plants, he said.
On Aug. 27, FirstEnergy
President Bob Saunders alluded to the potential of a new plant there
while hosting U.S. Sen. George Voinovich’s first tour of that
complex. He agreed with the senator that existing complexes, such as
Davis-Besse, likely would get any new units that are built to
minimize controversy over siting criteria. Mr. Voinovich (R., Ohio)
said his visit was inspired by his desire to help jump-start the
industry.
Detroit Edison has two units, but one is dormant.
Mr. Cerullo confirmed there is plenty of room to build more but
declined to specify a number.
As an industry, nuclear
generates about 100,000 megawatts of power, roughly a fifth of
America’s electricity. It has established a national goal of
generating 50 percent more power - a daily output of 150,000
megawatts - within 20 years, mainly by improving efficiency at its
plants.
FirstEnergy is planning improvements that would
increase Davis-Besse’s power output by about 15 percent in five
years, taking generating capacity of 935 megawatts up by about 125
megawatts. That’s enough to power 60,000 more
homes.
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