FISCAL FUEL?

SALEM TWP. – The concerns of adding another nuclear reactor all but vanish like the steam plumes billowing from the cooling towers at the power plant a few miles from Dennis Whitebread’s neat one-story home.

“They already got two there, what’s another one?” asked Whitebread outside the house on East Fifth Street he’s lived in since 1973.

That year the Atomic Energy Commission issued the construction permit to Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. to build what became known as the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station. Thirty-five years later, PPL Corp. intends to file an application in October with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a third reactor near Units 1 and 2 on high ground overlooking the Susquehanna River.

Rough estimates put construction costs at $10 billion. Regulatory review and approval would take about 2� years and construction could take another 4� years.

The filing is more a sign of interest than a commitment, cautioned PPL spokesman Dan McCarthy in an e-mail. “We simply are preserving our options by pursuing a construction and operation license.”

If it comes to fruition, it could be an economic boom, echoing far and wide with jobs, tax revenues and other benefits big and small.

Jacqueline Hartzel says people who work at the plant visit the stores, banks and businesses near her home d�cor and gift shop, Pine & Primitives, on U.S. Route 11 in Berwick, about eight miles southwest of the reactors.

She lives near the power plant and supports building another reactor in Luzerne County.

A recent scheduled outage at the plant brought out-of-state workers downtown. Should number three be built, that influx would be multiplied many times over. “It’s going to boost the economy, no doubt about it at all,” Hartzel said.

A study released two years ago by the Nuclear Energy Institute and PPL concluded the plant employees who live in Luzerne County contributed $39.5 million in labor income to its economy.

A 2006 license renewal application contained detailed tax information on the power plant:

• More than $15 million went to the Berwick Area School District, the county and Salem Township between 2000 and 2004;

• At least half of the township’s annual tax revenues came from the power plant during that period;

• The school district received the largest share of $9.4 million and the county followed with $5.7 million.

To what extent the third reactor would change those numbers is unclear at this time.

Ripple through economy

At the peak of employment in 1981, there were nearly 5,000 people on the job. Most were in construction and the jobs dropped sharply as the plant was completed. Unit 1 began commercial service on June 8, 1983. Unit 2 followed on Feb. 12, 1985. The costs to build the plant totaled $4.1 billion.

Estimates on the number of workers required to build a new reactor are unavailable. But Joe Scopelliti, a PPL plant spokesman, said the construction would take 54 months and involve skilled-trades people. “It’s a big stimulus.”

The splash made by the wages paid construction workers ripples throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania and in the places where the electricians, laborers and pipefitters reside. “They’re bringing money back to their communities,” Scopelliti said.

The paydays will be big, added Steve Phillips, executive director of the Berwick Industrial Development Association.

“There’s not going to be another project in our area that’s going to cost as much,” he said.

The economic impact will last longer than the construction and continue as long as the plant is in operation, stays on the tax rolls and employs people.

The average annual earnings for a plant worker living in the county was $69,500, according to the 2006 economic impact study. The staff most certainly would increase beyond the approximate 1,000 full-time employees, although numbers are not yet available.

A few doors away from Hartzel’s shop, Carl Kotch worked on his laptop computer while waiting for his lunch outside A Perfect Blend coffee shop and restaurant.

The pharmaceutical sales representative from nearby Sugarloaf Township weighed the addition of a new reactor against the rising cost of fossil fuels and leaned toward nuclear. “I believe nuclear power in general is a pretty good source of energy.”

The project would bring jobs. At the same time, he said, it’s liable to face opposition on a number of fronts, just like the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township and the proposed cargo airport near Hazleton.

The safety of the reactor will likely be debated. The township residents have lived with the reactors all these years. The controlled smashing of atoms inside steel-reinforced concrete buildings to boil water to spin turbines to generate electricity has been mostly problem-free since the reactors went on line in the 1980s.

Living so close, Kotch said he does not dwell on the risks. “I probably live within the fall-out zone. I never really think about it.”

From his front yard, Whitebread looks up the street in the direction of the power plant. “God forbid if anything happens,” he said. “Nothing will be worth nothing.”

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Third reactor could bring economic boost

Ripple through economy

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