Carter Speeds Up the Nukes

Moving on three fronts

High costs, long delays and public hostility have brought the construction of nuclear power plants to a near standstill. But the need for other sources of power has been underlined by the coal strike, during which atomic power plants have supplied 14% of the nation's electrical requirements (an increase of more than one-tenth from 1977). That production has allowed the nation to escape severe power rationing. Seizing the opportunity, the Carter Administration made three moves last week to advance the nuclear cause, at least in the long run:

P: The Administration finally sent to Congress a bill to speed construction of nuclear plants. The bill would set up a new licensing procedure involving the preselection and approval of potential plant sites and the combining of construction permits and operating licenses. That alone would shave two or more years off the time between when a plant is proposed and when it finally begins production. If the bill becomes law. standardized plant designs will be encouraged; the Government will give cash and technical aid to states to assess their nuclear power needs; intervenors will be given funds in certain cases to fight against location of new plants, a bow to the conservationists. The bill also stipulates that once approval has been given by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a plant, it cannot be stalled by further litigation, except on grounds of health or safety. Though that seems a huge loophole, the Government hopes that the provision will curtail the protracted environmental lawsuits that have hobbled the industry.

P: President Carter appointed an inter-agency task force to recommend a national policy for the disposal of nuclear wastes, a prerequisite for large-scale nuclear development. The transportation and storage of spent fuel and other dangerous wastes have been so obstructed by technical and bureaucratic delays that only one active repository, a steel and concrete storage pit filled with water, located near the small town of Morris, Ill., is in operation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates that as many as five or six additional sites will be needed by the year 2000.

P: The Administration and Congress neared a compromise in the fight over construction of a fast-breeder reactor at Clinch River, Tenn. The attraction of the fast-breeder is that it produces more fuel in the form of plutonium than it uses. But President Carter fears that some of the plutonium could find its way into unfriendly hands and increase the danger of atomic-weapons proliferation. The Administration also considers the project too costly for current needs. The likely compromise: if Congress abandons the Clinch River project, as Carter wants, the Administration will agree to bankroll another, more advanced, large demonstration breeder that would use "safe" fuels like thorium instead of plutonium.

All the moves will take a long time to increase the output of nuclear power, even if they succeed. Says one utility spokesman: "Even with licensing reform, new [plant] orders won't begin again until 1980 at the earliest." Meanwhile, public sentiment against nuclear power seems stronger than ever. A Harris survey of New York State residents released this month shows that, when asked whether they would be willing to have a nuclear plant sited in their area, more than half of those polled answered no. Only a quarter of the 1,000 respondents approved. And voters in California's Kern County, a rich, conservative farming area, rejected by about 2 to 1 a proposal by Western utilities to build a $5 billion nuclear complex large enough to supply electricity for a city of 5 million.

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