Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003023520
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOHN DIAMOND ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROCKVILLE, MD. LENGTH: Medium
Pro- and anti-nuclear advocates agreed on that much Thursday as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Seabrook for commercial operation. What remained unclear was whether the approval would mark the industry's last hurrah or bring about a second life for nuclear power.
The facts are plain enough. No utility has applied for a nuclear power license since 1978 and more than 100 reactor orders have been canceled in that time. Accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in the Soviet Union spread concern about nuclear power from activists to the public.
"The industry is so much in defeat that there's not likely any utility that's ever again going to want to order one of these machines," said Robert Backus, counsel to the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, a New Hampshire-based group opposed to Seabrook.
"We feel like we have been instrumental in the collapse of nuclear power in this country and perhaps even around the world," Backus said.
Seabrook owners waited 17 years from their application for a construction permit to the approval of a full-power license. And junk bonds used to help finance the plant through the long wait likely will not be available in future nuclear projects.
Still, there were optimists Thursday after the NRC's 3-0 vote in favor of a Seabrook license.
"As our demand for electricity keeps growing, we fully expect that we'll get back to building more new nuclear plants," said Harold Finger of the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness, an association representing the nuclear industry. "Today's vote means utilities can look with more confidence to nuclear energy as a part of their total strategy for providing America's fast-growing electricity needs."
Seabrook's own top executives were either uncertain or downright pessimistic about the industry's future.
New Hampshire Yankee President Edward Brown said "I can't predict" whether Seabrook will become "a bellwether for the future of the entire nuclear industry in the United States."
Brown's top deputy, Ted Feigenbaum, said the two-decade regulatory gauntlet run by Seabrook must be changed if nuclear energy is to grow. "It's taken too long," he said.
The NRC has tried to address the problem with a new set of rules enacted last year. They would allow a utility to receive advance approval if it chose a pre-approved site and used a standard reactor design that had passed NRC muster, said commission spokesman Frank Ingram.
But, NRC Chairman Kenneth Carr said, "I don't have any orders for new plants." And he said the decline of nuclear power could lead to darker days and nights ahead.
"As a private citizen, it worries me that nobody's building power plants out there of any kind," Carr said. "Power in the United States is not going to be sufficient in the next 10 years and we'll see the rolling blackouts that we saw in Florida and Texas over the winter. They'll spread."
Organized opposition was one key ingredient that discouraged utilities from building nuclear plants, Carr said. The other was public utility regulators' refusal to allow construction costs to be passed on to ratepayers until a plant was finished.
Such a ruling in New Hampshire led Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, owner of the largest Seabrook share, to abandon one of two reactors in 1986 and declare bankruptcy in 1988.
Some members of Congress appear to be moving in the direction of even tougher rules. A House subcommittee plans to open hearings March 15 into the NRC's procedures in reaching the Seabrook decision.
Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation called the hearings after accusing the NRC of running roughshod over its own regulations to ram through the Seabrook approval.
Thursday was a day of mixed emotions for combatants in the Seabrook fight. Proponents celebrated the licensing decision and worried about the nuclear power industry. Opponents hissed the NRC as it issued its ruling but declared victory in the war on nuclear power.
For pro-nuclear activists, there is the hope that the Seabrook experience will lead to a streamlined licensing process. The attitude of opponents was typified by Scott Denman of the Safe Energy Communication Council, a Washington-based group.
"Seabrook is the last hurrah for a crippled industry," Denman said. "The nuclear power industry has failed to rally support on Wall Street or Main Street."
by CNB