First Things First - Make Permanent Storage of Spent Fuel a Priority

Missouri residents should be concerned about what Ameren intends to do with its "spent" nuclear fuel from Callaway Plant #1 before it considers the building of a second plant.

Ameren has said it has ten years of storage left in the spent fuel pool it has onsite. The time is now to start construction of a permanent dry cask storage facility. 

The clock is ticking - can you hear it Captain Hook? Safety of Missouri residents should be the number one concern, not Ameren's bottom line.

Representative to introduce legislation on new nuclear plant

October 5, 2011 | Posted by: Dick Aldrich

 

The Callaway Nuclear Power Plant in Fulton, Mo. Photo by Rebecca Townsend/Missouri News Horizon

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A mid-Missouri state representative says building a new nuclear plant would provide 20 times more jobs than the current job creation and tax reform legislation being considered in the General Assembly.

Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, sponsors legislation that would allow voters statewide to decide whether or not to keep the current construction work in process law, referred to as CWIP. That statute prohibits state regulated utilities from charging customers for the cost of construction projects while the projects are in progress.

The law was voted into effect in 1976, at a time when Union Electric Company was preparing to build the current nuclear power plant in Callaway County. The company went ahead with the project in spite of the new law.

During the past two legislative sessions, Ameren Missouri, and later a group of utilities headed up by Ameren Missouri, has sought to have the CWIP restrictions relaxed to allow the utility to recoup the cost of preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission paperwork called an “early site permit.”

During the past session, legislation to do that passed the House with 122 representatives voting in favor of the legislation. The anti-CWIP measure died on the last day in the State Senate. Several attempts by legislation supporters including Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, and Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, to add the CWIP legislation to other bills was also thwarted earlier in the session.

Kelly says he thinks voters should have a say in repealing a law they installed more than 30 years ago.
“I believe we should construct the nuclear power plant, but I also want to be respectful of the voters who chose to enact the ban on CWIP 30 years ago,” Kelly said.

Kelly says he will try and add his bill to the House version of the job creation and tax reform legislation scheduled to be debated on the House floor Thursday.

“(My Bill) would dwarf the economic development bill in terms of job creation,” he said. “It would create 20 times more jobs than the whole rest of the bill combined. And good jobs, not just jobs in the immediate future, but for the long term.”

Kelly says he’s not sure what the outcome of his attempt to ammend the economic development bill on the House floor will be. He’s says he’s sure of House support, but knows the bill has its detractors in the Senate.