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Energy Hunt Finds Nuclear Questions by Michelle Cole, Oregonian staff The Oregonian, February 12, 2001

As the Northwest scrambles for every possible megawatt,
some suggest another look at the option of building nuclear plants

Eighteen months ago, the 1,000-ton reactor compartment that once housed the radioactive core of the Trojan Nuclear Plant was barged upriver and buried at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Few were sorry to see it go -- least of all Portland General Electric. The utility closed the plant in 1993, nearly two decades ahead of schedule and after years of public protests, numerous fines for safety violations, repeated breakdowns and, in November 1992, an accidental release of trace amounts of radioactive gases.

Even with the West threatened by electricity shortages and forced to scramble for every megawatt it can muster, no one is wishing aloud that Trojan were still online. But a few people are saying what would have been unthinkable 20 years ago: Perhaps nuclear power should be a bigger part of the Northwest's energy arsenal.

The region has just one operating nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, Wash., which supplies enough power to light the city of Seattle.

"I think we have an obligation to look at all forms of generation," said Rep. Larry Crouse, a Republican leader in the Washington Legislature.

Crouse, co-chairman of the House Technologies, Telecommunications and Energy Committee, plans a work session next month to explore nuclear power. He also wants to discuss whether it's feasible to complete an Eastern Washington nuclear plant that was 70 percent built before being mothballed in the 1980s during the Washington Public Power Supply System's billion-dollar debacle. "I'd like, hopefully, to dispel a lot of myths," Crouse said of the meeting. "I've always been kind of a fan of nuclear power. It powers our aircraft carriers, our submarines. Europe and Japan are mostly nuclear-powered."

Crouse is not alone.

Nuclear power industry officials say California's rolling blackouts, rising electricity rates and a growing dread of what's ahead this summer have prompted many people to take another look at nuclear power.

The industry claims its plants are safer and more efficient than they were 20 years ago. And though building a new nuclear power plant costs at least three times as much as a natural gas-powered plant, the industry says the price of nuclear power is coming down.

What's more, the industry says its public opinion polls show growing support for nuclear power.

"It definitely makes sense for the country, for the Northwest, as much as anywhere else," said Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry lobbying group based in Washington, D.C.

Singer acknowledges that the Northwest is a tough sell when it comes to nuclear power.

Northwest unwelcoming In 1980, after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania the year before and the movie "The China Syndrome," about a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant, Oregon voters endorsed a citizens' initiative blocking approval of any nuclear plant site until the United States has a disposal site for the radioactive spent fuel. Even then, the initiative requires a vote of the people before any new nuclear plant would be allowed. That law is still on the books.

Peter Bergel, campaign manager for the 1980 initiative, said he thinks public opinion is unchanged. "There were so many revelations about nuclear power," Bergel said. "People really began to see what the problems were at the time, and nothing has happened in the interim to change the public's mind."

The initiative brought a swift end to a controversial PGE proposal for a nuclear power plant in Eastern Oregon. PGE isn't pushing to resurrect that plant or to propose any other in the state.

"The people of Oregon do not want nuclear power plants," PGE spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "They made that clear in the election of 1980, and they made it clear through a variety of forums. We understand that. As long as that's what we're hearing from the people of Oregon, we do not plan to propose any nuclear power plants."

But PGE, which supplies more electricity to Oregon customers than any other utility, is exploring ways it could generate power at Trojan.

Instead of splitting atoms, the utility is talking about burning natural gas at the plant along the Columbia River 42 miles northwest of Portland. A natural gas line runs along Highway 30, adjacent to the site. The electrical transmission lines are there. So is a power substation.

Fryburg emphasized that any plan to transform Trojan into a natural gas power plant is still in its preliminary stage.

Problems with natural gas But 22 other natural gas plants have been proposed for the Columbia River Gorge, on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the river, said Bob Bachman, an air quality meteorologist who monitors the Gorge for the U.S. Forest Service.

"I'm sure it makes sense from PGE's perspective," Bachman said. "But this is on the order of catastrophic from my point of view. . . . From my point of view, air quality isn't getting a lot of attention."

Bachman's concern centers primarily on nitrogen dioxide emissions from gas-powered generating plants. Nitrogen dioxide binds with ammonia to create fine particles of ammonium nitrate that can impair visibility and irritate people with breathing problems, he said.

In addition to Trojan's troubles, Northwesterners' opinion of nuclear power was soured by their experience with WPPSS. The consortium of public utilities -- whose acronym was pronounced "Whoops" -- decided in the mid-1970s to build five nuclear power plants. The project suffered cost overruns and various other problems before collapsing under more than $7 billion in debt.

'It's a lifesaver' The Columbia Generating Plant, built on land leased from the U.S. Department of Energy at the Hanford site, was the only one of the five finished, and it has played a key role in keeping the lights on this winter. It has produced power valued at nearly $1 billion since July 1.

"Oh boy, it's a lifesaver," said Ed Mosey, a spokesman for the Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the power produced by the nuclear power plant and 29 dams.

Even so, Mosey said, the BPA isn't pushing for new nuclear power plants or for the completion of the WPPSS plant that was 70 percent built before debt halted construction.

Industry experts agree that it would be expensive and an engineering challenge to put together systems exactly as they were designed after all these years. Still, the mothballed plant has generated some interest because of the West's deepening power crisis.

"Over the past 12 months there have been at least two private power companies who have come and asked us if they can look at it with the intention of a possible restart of construction," said Don McManman, a spokesman for Energy Northwest, the new name for WPPSS.

"We've given them the key to the place," he said. "Let them see some old construction records. They said, 'Thank you very much' and walked away. They haven't called back."