Exelon considering new nuclear plant for Illinois

CLINTON, Ill. -- Any final decision might be years away, but the Exelon Corp., Illinois' largest electricity generator, says it is considering filing requests to build a new nuclear generating plant.

No permits for new nuclear power stations have issued in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania, but President George W. Bush is known to favor more reliance on nuclear power.

Exelon officials say their hopes of possibly setting up a new plant was boosted last week when the U.S. Senate voted for billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear generator construction.

The House passed a less sweeping nuclear initiative.

Exelon has been reviewing for more than a year the possibility of building a new reactor beside an existing unit at Clinton, a company spokeswoman said.

"Certainly, from the company's perspective, we would be in favor of the bill and the type of (loan guarantee) incentive," spokeswoman Ann Mary Carley told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It signals that there is a future for nuclear."

Details about the proposed reactor have not been made public. The first Clinton reactor, which opened in 1987, cost $4 billion.

"When Exelon looks at generation, it looks at generation as a whole," Carley said. "What's the best business case. You determine which kind of generation, in which area, and what eventually works."

Exelon might file an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an early site permit by the end of the summer, Carley said. Once filed, the permit would take two to three years to secure from the NRC.

If the company were to receive a permit, it would have at least 10 years to decide whether it wants to proceed with construction of a reactor.

With 11 reactors at six sites, no state has more nuclear power generators than Illinois.

Ten of the Illinois reactors were built by Commonwealth Edison, now a division of Exelon. The Clinton unit was built by Illinois Power Co. and now is jointly owned by Exelon and British Energy, a Scottish company. The plant is solely operated by Exelon.

Although U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., voted against the nuclear package, he says he supports the industry that provides about half of his state's electricity.

"I don't think anybody in Illinois can in good conscience turn on a light and say, 'I hate nuclear power,'" he said.

Durbin said he objected to the Senate bill, which also includes nearly $1 billion in nuclear research, because taxpayers would be put at serious risk. He said a Congressional Budget Office study put the odds of default on a loan for a new nuclear plant at higher than 50 percent.