New nuclear plant chief leads expansion project

Adam Heflin started his new job this month as AmerenUE’s chief nuclear officer and head of operations at the Callaway Nuclear Plant. If company objectives are reached, he will preside over the biggest building project in Missouri’s history and witness an economic boom in Callaway and Boone counties.

In late July or early August, AmerenUE will submit a license application for Callaway No. 2 to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Heflin, who lives in Columbia, will spend half his time making sure the nuclear power plant is run safely and efficiently; the other half will be spent running Ameren’s campaign to build a second nuclear reactor at Callaway.

Heflin estimated that the construction project would take six years and employ 2,500 workers, with a payroll of around $400 million a year. When finished, the nuclear reactor would employ about 400 people with a $30 million annual payroll.

“The economic impact would be huge in this area,” Heflin said during an interview in the CBT office.

However, the timetable even with the best-case scenario is lengthy—construction would start in 2012, and the reactor would go online in 2018. And the obstacles are enormous.

Adam Heflin

Several hundred people attended a public hearing Wednesday night in Fulton concerning AmerenUE’s upcoming application for a construction and operating license to build a second nuclear reactor at Callaway. The NRC arranged the meeting to describe its process for reviewing the application and to answer questions. Opponents held a news conference outside the meeting to publicize their concerns.

The last time the NRC approved the construction license for a new reactor was in 1978, the year before an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania caused the release of radioactive material.
Callaway also would need to get the Missouri General Assembly to pass legislation allowing pay-as-you-go financing through rate hikes to make the project feasible. Having to borrow the money to build the reactor would increase the cost by another $2 to $3 billion and make the project too risky to pursue, Heflin said. The proposed legislation will be introduced next year.
Another fact that could draw opposition: all the low-level and high-level nuclear waste produced at Callaway’s reactor would have to be stored on site.
Still, Heflin is optimistic about the chances of Callaway No. 2 becoming a reality.

The 20-year process to locate a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel has reached a milestone. During the next three months, the NRC will review the U.S. Department of Energy’s application to construct the underground repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Congress passed an energy bill that contains economic incentives for the construction of nuclear reactors, and is considering legislation that would add to the price of coal production through a tax on carbon emissions.

The combination of global warming and escalating demand for electricity works in favor of production from modern nuclear power plants, which produce no greenhouse gases.

Utilities in eight states are seeking permission to build new reactors. The license application that will be submitted for Callaway will be the 16th under review by the NRC.

Ameren is going to need to build either a coal-fired plant or a nuclear plant to keep up with rising demand for electricity, Heflin said.

Heflin perceives that people are more open-minded about nuclear power today than they were a few years ago.

“The conversations are different now,” Heflin said. “The receptivity is a lot higher now. More people are worried about the environment. People also know more about nuclear power, and our safety record has been quite good.”

Heflin added that the Callaway expansion has “a lot of legislative support now.”
“I think it’s the right thing to do from a customer’s perspective and from an environmental perspective,” Heflin said.

The second Callaway reactor would generate about 1,600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1 million homes. The second reactor also would generate an estimated $115 million in tax revenue in Callaway County during the construction period, Heflin said, and about $17.5 million annually after it’s operating. The 66 counties in Ameren’s service area, including Boone, would split up about $72 million in annual property tax revenue, he said.

Heflin, 44, is a mechanical engineer who was raised in Colorado and received his nuclear training as a submariner in the U.S. Navy. He was hired as vice president at Callaway three years ago, and started his new job in Fulton on July 1.

His wife, Toni, is studying psychological communications at Columbia College, and his two youngest sons are attending Rockbridge High School and Mill Creek Elementary.

Heflin said his oldest son is a welder working in Texas who often works on industrial projects, including those at nuclear plants.

“I feel the best about his safety when he’s at a nuclear plant,” Heflin said. “Everything we do has to be done with precision. There can’t be any casual operation going on.”