Japan crisis may affect Ind. nuclear bill

Japan’s recent nuclear crisis may affect Indiana Senate Bill 251, which provides financial incentives to build nuclear power plants in Indiana.

The International Atomic Energy Agency continues to monitor Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after a tsunami wave damaged backup generators, which power cooling operations.

Officials have found radiation above normal levels in the surrounding area’s air, food and seawater, which is raising concern about nuclear power plants in the United States.

One author of SB 251, Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Lafayette, said while it’s important to take nuclear safety concerns seriously, Japan’s crisis shouldn’t stop Indiana’s nuclear energy investment.

“We have to be cautions not to paint too broad a brush considering it was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded,” Hershman said.

The New Madrid fault line runs through southern Indiana, but Hershman said there are no proposed plans to construct a nuclear power plant near the fault line.

Hershman admitted Japan’s nuclear crisis may interfere with what he hoped SB 251 would accomplish.

“I expect a federal review of licenses and procedures,” Hershman said. “I think, if anything, the lesson of Japan is that those (safety) investments are worthwhile,” referring to the bill’s funding for nuclear plant management.

The Sierra Club, an environmental action organization, encouraged members to contact their government representatives in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis to oppose nuclear energy.

“Nuclear energy is not the answer,” the Sierra Club said in an online letter. “The bottom line is that nukes are dirty, unsafe, deadly and costly.”

Currently, Indiana doesn’t have any nuclear power plants. Some northern Indiana residents served by Indiana Michigan Power Company use nuclear power from Southwest Michigan’s Cook Nuclear Plant.

Past attempts to construct nuclear power plants in Indiana have been unsuccessful. Northern Indiana Public Service Company tried to construct Bailly Nuclear Power Plant within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The company received a permit from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1974 for this, but the plant was met with fierce public opposition and eventually abandoned in 1981 due to exorbitant construction costs.

Indiana Power Company began constructing Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in 1978 but abandoned construction halfway through in 1984 due to rapidly rising construction costs. Marble Hill was also publicly unpopular.

Since Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station meltdown in 1979, no new nuclear power plants have been constructed in the United States.

School of Public and Environmental Affairs associate professor Kerry Krutilla, who specializes in energy policy, said Japan’s current crisis doesn’t bring any new nuclear safety issues to light.

“The problems at the Fukushima nuclear complex offer a reminder of well-known risks of nuclear power,” Krutilla said.

In addition to safety issues, economic and health costs can be a deterrent to nuclear power plants, Krutilla said. Krutilla also said U.S. federal law exempts the nuclear industry from having to purchase liability insurance for catastrophic accidents.

“This is just one of the reasons the nuclear industry can provide electricity to consumers at rates which don’t fully cover the cost of generating the power,”
Krutilla said.