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Bridle Ridge 113 Appaloosa, 1999, 3/2, 1809 sq. ft., $147, 000. Relocating. Must sell. Call 361-212-0393.
Nuclear may be an option, but residents still have concerns.
On Tuesday, the Conservative Club invited Exelon director of Texas public affairs William A. Scott to answer questions its members and the public may have about nuclear energy.
Exelon Nuclear proposes to build a dual-reactor nuclear plant near McFaddin in Victoria County and is working to “preserve the option to build.”
Indianola resident Bob Platte, 76, wondered how the nuclear company would get rid of its waste, including spent fuel rods.
While the possibility of Yucca Mountain or a long-term storage facility would be an option, the ultimate solution would be recycling the waste, Scott said.
Platte admits with the growing population in Texas, the demand for electricity increases.
“Generally, I think it’s a great opportunity for the area to accept this thing and jump on it,” Platte said. “We need it.”
But he also agreed that the Calhoun County commissioner for Precinct 2 raised a valid point.
Commissioner Vernon Lyssy asked how the wildlife would be affected by a 6,000-acre lake that would serve as a cooling reservoir for the plant. Exelon has an option to buy with the Bob McCan family for 11,500 acres.
Scott responded that Exelon has a team drafting an environmental report for its Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application, which it hopes to submit in September.
Lyssy admitted everyone wants less expensive power and that residents need to become more informed about the nuclear plant.
“We still need to start looking at alternative ways of producing power,” Lyssy said.
President of the Conservative Club Connie Hunt said that Calhoun County as a whole seemed in favor of nuclear energy and that most worried about the safety aspect. But she said she thinks the industry has advanced enough to allay some fears.
“There’s really no guarantee,” she said, noting how trucks already come through the area with chemicals. “You just take the good with the bad.”
Residents wanted to know where the power produced by Exelon would go and where the power lines would be placed, but Scott said Exelon doesn’t make that call. He referred residents to Electric Reliability Council of Texas and AEP.
Electricity is hard to explain in that way, Ercot communications manager Dottie Roark said.
Ercot forecasts show the power supply is good until 2013, but with older plants shutting down, the reserve target will continually decrease without new power generation, leaving a huge gap to fill in 2029, Roark said.