Stan Blanton Referenced in The American Lawyer

Is nuclear power ready to glow?
New reactors, including two planned for Georgia, and more federal aid have industry humming
By Claire Zillman, The American Lawyer/Fulton Co. Daily Report

In its Proposed 2011 budget, the Obama administration wants to triple the amount of federal money earmarked for nuclear power plant loan guarantees from this year's $18.5 billion to $54 billion. It's just one sign that the industry may truly be coming back to life after lying dormant for nearly two decades.

Since Congress created the loan guarantee program in 2005, utilities have submitted 18 applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licenses for new reactors. The nascent nuclear surge has been a boon for lawyers who specialize in the field. Traditional nuclear power­houses—Winston & Strawn; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman—have seen a steady increase in work. Kathryn Sutton, head of Morgan Lewis's energy practice, says her group has added about eight lawyers since 2005. Pillsbury energy chair David Lewis, who is advising PPL Corp. on its plans for a new reactor in Pennsylvania, says his group's head count has jumped 35 percent, from 20 to 27, in the last year, and revenue has doubled.

Still, the recession has slowed the industry's resurgence. Five of the 18 applications filed with the NRC since 2005 have been suspended in recent months. Among the factors clouding the picture: a decline in electricity demand and Congress's failure to pass a climate change bill that would presumably boost emissions-free nuclear energy.

The pause in the nuclear renaissance was highlighted in October when Constellation Energy Group, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Energy failed to agree on loan guarantee terms for a reactor in Maryland. A key sticking point: the agency's reported demand for an $880 million down payment for the loan guarantee because it deemed the project risky. Constellation said the sum was "unreasonably burdensome."

Nuclear power lawyers call that deal's collapse a mere blip. "It's important to remember that nuclear power plants are designed on a 10-year schedule," says Winston & Strawn's Tyson Smith, co-chair of the ABA's special committee on nuclear power. The downturn, he says, may mean that it takes longer to build plants, but it won't kill the need for them.

As for other projects, Southern Co.'s planned twin reactors in Georgia are furthest along. Southern collected loan guarantees worth $8.3 billion in February, making it the first company to tap the program. The project has also gotten an early site permit and a limited work authorization, and last spring became the first to break ground for a nuclear plant since the 1980s. Southern is waiting for the NRC to approve its reactor design, says M. Stanford Blanton of Birmingham-based Balch & Bingham, which represents the utility. Blanton expects the license to be issued in 2011. Morgan Lewis's Sutton, another Southern adviser, says that could be a big moment: "Other licensees are definitely watching to see what happens with Southern."