NU Conn. Millstone 2 nuke trial ends, no decision

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Thursday May 6, 9:06 pm Eastern Time

NU Conn. Millstone 2 nuke trial ends, no decision

NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - Northeast Utilities (NU - news), 
New England's largest electric utility, said Thursday the trial 
seeking to prevent its Millstone 2 nuclear unit from restarting ended 
this afternoon without a decision.  

``It's over. The judge thanked both parties' lawyers for their 
participation and said he would make his decision as soon as 
possible,'' NU's nuclear spokesman Terrance McIntosh said.  

McIntosh said he could not estimate how long it would take the 
judge to make a final decision in this case.

The trial was brought by Fish Unlimited, a nonprofit fishermen's 
group based in Shelter Island, N.Y., that is seeking a permanent 
injunction to prevent NU from restarting the idled 880-megawatt 
Millstone 2 nuclear unit in Connecticut.  

The fishermen's group alleged in the trial, which opened April 13, 
that warm water released by the Millstone plant harms local fish 
stocks in Long Island Sound.  

On April 27, Fish Unlimited apparently became the first 
environmentalist group to halt the restart of a nuclear power plant 
after Connecticut Superior Court Judge Robert Hale issued a 
temporary restraining order to prevent Millstone 2's restart until the 
end of the trial for a permanent injunction.  

Without the temporary restraining order, NU could have put 
Millstone 2 back in service on April 29, the day the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission in Washington approved its restart.  

Millstone 2 has been idled since 1996 for extensive safety 
upgrades. The unit's reactor has been reactivated and is now in 
``hot standby'' awaiting the judge's decision.  

``We have no idea how the judge will decide, but we are very 
hopeful he will rule in favor of restart,'' McIntosh said.

``Now that we're holding in Mode 3 (the last step before restarting 
the unit), we can hopefully restart shortly after his decision.''

Local utilities are keeping a watchful eye on the decision since a 
ruling to block the plant's restart could remove a key source of 
electricity from the region this summer, when air conditioning 
demand typically pushes the grid to its limits.  

New England, largely because of lengthy outages at the Millstone 
nuclear station, has struggled over the past two summers to keep 
pace with electricity demand.  

The adjacent 1,200 megawatt Millstone 3 reactor, currently shut for 
refueling, is not scheduled to return to service until mid-July, the 
height of the summer season. 

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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