Nuclear power industry sensing political shift

From CNN Kate Snow
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Inside the North Anna Nuclear Site, an hour north of Richmond, Virginia, the generators roar 24 hours a day. Two reactors produce enough electricity for 250,000 Virginia homes.

Nationwide, nuclear plants provide roughly one-fifth of the country's power, and supporters say that number could grow.

"It's amazing what a little shortage of electricity will do for your view of what's needed for the future," said Joe Colvin, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute.

The nuclear industry is sensing a shift. For the first time in decades, politicians talk openly about using nuclear power to diversify America's energy supply.

"This is an industry today that is not the industry that it was 20 years ago," Colvin said. "This is an industry today that is operating these plants safely, reliably, competitively, and at performance levels that exceed any other source of generation that we have in the United States."

On Capitol Hill, support for nuclear power is in part a response to constituents. Nuclear plants operate in 31 states.

"One of the reasons that I have been a supporter of nuclear [power] is because we've had such a good experience in Florida, where we have three nuclear farms and they contribute about 20 percent of our total energy supply," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida.

And with the Bush administration backing nuclear power, it is no longer as politically dangerous for members of Congress to be pro-nuclear. Vice President Dick Cheney first endorsed the idea on a talk show.

"If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants," Cheney said.

It's been nearly 25 years since the last commercial reactor was ordered -- 1978, one year before the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. That accident prompted fears about public safety, and the industry was accused of financial mismanagement.

Then, in the mid-1980s, came the Chernobyl disaster. In the 1990s, nuclear power companies worked to soften their image, but critics say that is only part of the reason for nuclear energy's rebirth.

"If it's fought in the public domain, nuclear power will lose. So they have to fight it behind closed doors where there's a better chance of winning," said David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The top six operators run about half of the nation's 103 nuclear reactors. Those six contributed more than $1 million to federal candidates in the 2000 elections -- about two-thirds of that to Republicans.

Opponents of nuclear power contend the politics have changed but the danger has not.

"We believe we are in more danger with nuclear power industry than we were when public concern focused on construction projects, because now is the time that the industry is seeking new bottom lines that pit profit margins versus safety margins," said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Plants store their high-level radioactive waste in pools or in dry containers. The federal government was supposed to take control of the waste in 1998 -- but that did not happen.

One thing both pro- and anti-nuclear forces agree on: If the political will now exists to build more nuclear reactors, an effort is needed to clean up the waste.

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