Nuclear power faces headwinds …future remains cloudy in Wisconsin..- JSOnline

As nuclear power’s new era dawns in Georgia, where the Southern Co. won approval this month to build the first U.S. reactor in decades, the future of nuclear power remains cloudy in Wisconsin.

Republican lawmakers had announced plans to lift the state’s nuclear moratorium, but the political stalemate in Madison and the specter of recall elections facing the governor and state senators left little appetite to take on controversial issues other than mining legislation.

Adding to the uncertainty, ownership of Wisconsin’s aging nuclear plants has changed in recent years, and the Kewaunee reactor is up for sale once again.

Dominion Resources Inc. paid $192 million to buy Kewaunee in 2005, at a time when nuclear plants across the country were being acquired by a small group of nuclear-focused utility companies.

Several years later, the Point Beach nuclear plant was sold to NextEra Energy Resources of Florida.

The purchase of plants located just a few miles apart by different companies prevented one company from achieving economies of scale by owning both.

Since buying the plant, Dominion has made moves to ensure its future by winning permission from federal regulators to operate for another 20 years, until the early 2030s.

Dominion also has moved to create room for more used nuclear fuel by taking fuel from its spent fuel pool and moving it to eight large concrete casks stored outside the reactor. The work started in 2009 and has continued for the past two years, plant spokesman Mark Kanz said.

But Dominion has been operating the plant at a loss in recent years.

In its most recent quarterly report, the Virginia-based company said it lost $39 million at Kewaunee last year after losing $20 million in 2010.