Nuclear, not coal, is plan at Progress

Utility will ask today for a second nuclear reactor in Wake as coal creates carbon-gas concerns

As Progress Energy looks for new power sources amid shifting environmental rules, the Raleigh utility has decided that coal is out and nuclear is in.

The Raleigh electric utility said Monday that it would apply today for a federal permit to add a second nuclear reactor at the Shearon Harris plant in Wake County within a decade. Chief executive Bill Johnson said that a new coal-burning power plant is "off the table" for the foreseeable future.

"We need to prepare for 10, 20, 30 years out," Johnson said. "The best option right now is advanced nuclear."

Its decision favoring nuclear energy is driven largely by uncertainties in public policy. Legislators and regulators increasingly are focusing on the environmental threat posed by global warming. Penalties on carbon-dioxide emissions are widely expected from Congress, a policy that could significantly increase the operating costs of coal plants by taxing coal's byproduct: the greenhouse gas that is blamed for overheating the planet.

Coal and nuclear plants both pose environmental risks, but Progress' commitment to a new nuclear plant signals that the company considers managing radioactive waste less of a gamble than dealing with carbon dioxide.

Johnson and other Progress executives met with News & Observer editors and writers Monday to discuss the company's energy strategy for a fast-growing region.

Company officials described a growing number of energy initiatives that likely will include conservation programs and perhaps even a business that would install solar panels on homes.

The nuclear license application keeps the company on a course tentatively set nearly three years ago, when Progress officials identified nuclear energy as the cheapest, cleanest and most dependable fuel source for the future.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees public safety at the nation's nuclear power plants, will take about three years to review the 4,000-page application.

Only three years ago, nuclear power was an iffy proposition, stigmatized by the 1979 accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. Spurred by new federal incentives for new nuclear plants, the NRC has received license applications from five power companies and expects more than a dozen applications this year. Meanwhile, at least 50 coal-fired power plants were denied, delayed or withdrawn in this country last year.

Progress is negotiating with nuclear vendor Westinghouse on equipment and parts and expects to sign a contract in about two years.

The company said it will soon introduce efficiency programs that would pay customers incentives if they conserve energy. Progress and other utilities are developing energy alternatives under a new state law requiring greater use of renewable sources and efficiency programs.

Johnson said that the company had received 23 proposals from independent power generators that would produce electricity from solar energy, animal waste and wood waste.

But Johnson warned that the cost of the proposed renewable resources is as much as 10 times the cost of electricity produced by a traditional power plant.

"For the next decade or more, these are niche players," Johnson said. "We're still going to have to build a plant -- or two or three."

Alternative-energy advocates said Progress' approach to nontraditional sources is not surprising.

"We're seeing the transformation of an industry that has done things one way for decades," said John Wilson, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

"We're hoping once they get some experience with their first steps, we'll see that confidence develop. That's what we've seen with other utilities: They're dragged kicking and screaming into this efficiency business. It took them a couple of years, and all of a sudden, they're advocates."