Proposed nuclear plant could get tax breaks

BOISE – A French nuclear services company says eastern Idaho’s desert landscape near the Idaho National Laboratory is well suited for a new uranium enrichment plant. The region offers cheap electricity, low earthquake danger and support from a community that’s lived and worked in the shadow of nuclear reactors for seven decades.

Idaho’s tax landscape, however, might as well have been a disaster area, the company said.

Other states that Areva is still eyeing for its planned $2 billion facility offer better deals, said Laurence Pernot, a company spokeswoman.

As a result, two bills due Monday in the House Revenue and Taxation Committee would give millions of dollars worth of annual concessions to the company, should Areva opt to build on a plot of sagebrush near Idaho Falls.

The proposals rekindle a long-standing debate over how states can manipulate financial goodies to attract new projects – and whether it’s a good idea. Don Dietrich, the administrator for economic and community development at the state Department of Commerce, said Idaho should do everything it can because it wants the 250 high-paying jobs the company says will accompany its plant.

“If you’re going to play in the game, you want your first-string team suited up,” Dietrich said Friday.

“The biggest risk is not being in the game. These companies are very sophisticated and experienced. They line up all the columns and compare us to other states.”

Pernot said her company will announce its final selection in coming weeks. She won’t name the other states being considered.

The plant would be operational in 2014, she said.

Areva has dispatched a slew of government affairs personnel and lobbyists to Boise, where they’ve been meeting with Idaho legislators for weeks to win support for the plan.

In addition, the company has enlisted the help of the state’s chief nuclear promoter, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig.

Craig, long a proponent of the Idaho National Laboratory’s efforts to build the next generation of nuclear reactors, says he met with Areva last May, the same month the company told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intentions to build a U.S. enrichment plant.

After the company narrowed its possible sites to five states in mid-2007, Craig said he sat down with several Idaho Republican lawmakers to win their backing for legislative incentives.

“We’re asking for nothing greater or less than what the other states can offer who are competing for a uranium enrichment facility,” Craig said last week.