AmerenUE ordered to turn over Callaway 2 data

For months, Missouri Public Counsel Lewis Mills Jr. has been trying to pry information from AmerenUE regarding plans to build a second nuclear plant in Callaway County. Tuesday, state regulators ordered the utility to comply with most of Mills’ requests.

The PSC ordered AmerenUE to turn over information related to 12 of 14 requests. It denied two other requests that Ameren had argued would violate attorney-client privilege. But Mills is free to ask for the information again, according to the order.

Mills request for information follows his unsuccessful attempts (at least so far) to compel the Public Service Commission to investigate AmerenUE’s plans for another reactor, roughly projected to cost $6 billion to $9 billion. No one knows AmerenUE’s best cost estimates because the utility isn’t disclosing them.

The debate at the PSC parallels efforts by St. Louis-based Ameren, the parent of AmerenUE, to repeal the 1976 law prohibiting construction work in progress, or CWIP. That law prevents Ameren from billing customers for a new nuclear plant years before it’s completed. Ameren says doing so could save customers billions of dollars in financing costs in the long run and the rate shock that would inevitably kick in when the plant is up and running. Some consumer advocates and others disagree. They say lifting the CWIP ban in Missouri would shift the risk of a nuclear project from the utility to its customers.

Mills hasn’t taken a stand on whether another nuclear plant is needed. He’s arguing that the PSC should look at financing methods and costs for a second nuclear plant — an analysis that could help the General Assembly make up its mind.

Here is some of the information that AmerenUE must turn over to Mills, according to Tuesday’s order:

• Descriptions or analysis of problems AmerenUE may face in financing a nuclear plant;
• Cost estimates for a new nuclear plant if the current CWIP law is overturned;
• An unredacted copy of the construction and operating license application submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission;
• An analysis of projected costs in the NRC license application;
• An unredacted copy of AmerenUE’s application to the Department of Energy for loan guarantees;
• A current plan for financing construction of a nuclear plant.