AEP KEEPS NUCLEAR OPTIONS OPEN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993                   TAG: 9301120070
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
AEP KEEPS NUCLEAR OPTIONS OPEN
American Electric Power Co., Appalachian Power's parent, is one of 16 utilities negotiating with contractors to design nuclear power plants for possible long-range generating needs.
In a joint program, the Department of Energy will pay $100 million and the 16 companies will put up $50 million to develop engineering for nuclear plants. AEP's share of $3 million will come from its research and development funds.
DOE expects to recover part of its investment from sales of the designs.
"This doesn't mean we're getting into the nuclear power business, but it does mean we support long-range planning," said Marshall Julien, an AEP Service Corp. vice president. Although AEP remains largely a coal-burning generating system, it is keeping its nuclear options open, Julien said Monday.
In Roanoke, Apco President Joseph Vipperman called the nuclear plan "an insurance policy if other options close."
Nuclear plant construction halted with the March 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Vipperman said he does not expect to see AEP build a nuclear plant during his career, expected to run another 13 years.
It's harder to find sites for hydro generation and if technology doesn't develop a replacement for nuclear power, "where will we go?" Vipperman asked.
"It's tougher every day for utilities to burn coal," he said. "What will happen if the government said we can't burn coal? What will we do then?"
The U.S. industry is borrowing an idea from France, where advanced nuclear plant design has been successful, Vipperman said.
Acting through the Advanced Reactor Corp., an industry corporation, the utilities are negotiating contracts with General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Corp. for the engineering required for a standardized plant design proposed by each industry.
This plan, under the new Energy Policy Act, probably will save two years for a utility preparing to build a nuclear plant, said Steve Unglesbee of the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness, a nuclear power industry group in Washington. Construction of a nuclear plant would take five or six years, he said.
If the designs are certified, he said, they can be put on the shelf and later retrieved for use when a utility decides to build a nuclear plant. The plan allows power plant orders to be placed in the late 1990s, Unglesbee said.
The Department of Energy has predicted that the United States will need 200 new energy plants by 2010, he said, even if utilities are aggressive in conservation and keep older plants. The Clean Air Act could force the retirement of old coal-burning plants, he added.
The new plant design plan "pushes a lot of new energy technologies out of the engineering realm and into the marketplace," Unglesbee said.
AEP's Indiana Michigan Power Co. subsidiary has operated the Donald Cook nuclear plant in Michigan for many years. Apco about 20 years ago talked of a nuclear plant in the eastern end of its territory, near Amherst.
Some observers have wondered if the selection of E. Linn Draper Jr., a nuclear engineer, as the next chairman of AEP in April indicates the AEP system is looking harder at nuclear generation.
But Julien, who works at AEP headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, said the company's participation in the design program "definitely does not signal that we are planning to get into the nuclear business in the near future."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB