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No decision has been made to build a nuclear plant in Victoria County, but local officials aren’t waiting.

They’ve made two trips to Austin during the past two weeks, priming the governmental pump should Exelon Nuclear give a thumbs up to building a plant.

“It’s a very long-term project,”said County Judge Don Pozzi, one of those who made the trips to Austin. “All of this is just opening lines of communications and letting them know how leadership in the community feels.”

The Victoria County delegation met with everyone from Gov. Rick Perry and state Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, to representatives of such regulatory agencies as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“We talked to no one that had anything bad to say about the project,” Pozzi said. “They were all supportive of it.”

Exelon’s $6 billion investment could employ as many as 700 people. Exelon officials have said they probably won’t decide until 2009 whether to build the plant and it wouldn’t be commercially producing electricity until about 2015.

But Dale Fowler with the Victoria Economic Development Corp. said Exelon is already working on the operating and license application.

“We feel like Exelon’s nuclear plant project is so important that things need to be done right and in an appropriate fashion,”said Fowler, who also went to Austin. “We felt the best way to do that is initiating early dialog with the appropriate government officials that will be overseeing that.”

Randy Vivian with the Victoria Chamber of Commerce said while Exelon hasn’t made a decision yet, he sees encouraging signs.

“It tells me a lot that they’re spending upwards of $100 million on the permitting process,” said Vivian, who also traveled to Austin. “You don’t throw away that kind of money if you’re not serious about turning dirt and building a structure.”

Vivian said probably the most important thing at this point is to make sure the proper groundwork is laid for the plant.

“We want to be sensitive to the environment and to the local concerns,” he said. “We are watching this process just as much as anybody else.”

David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com.