An evolving licensing process and a desire to keep financing options clear during the recession both played into a January request to halt the application to add another reactor at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station, Entergy Mississippi President and CEO Haley Fisackerly said in Vicksburg Wednesday.

“You will not see anything happen at Grand Gulf before 2020 unless some miracle happens,” Fisackerly said.

Steps toward a possible second reactor at the Claiborne County site started in 2002 with pursuit of early site approval, a five-year process. A second phase, applying for a construction and operating license began two years ago and hit a snag in January when Entergy announced the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could not come to terms with General Electric Hitachi on development of the main component of a second facility, the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor.

Fisackerly told the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce that Hitachi had a “great design” for the reactor but had “fallen behind on the certification process” with the federal regulators.

“The problem is we passed them. They fell two to three years behind,” Fisackerly said, adding GE-Hitachi the utility is talking with other boiling water reactor vendors. “We wanted to stop before we spend any more money without certainty on where the technology goes.”

Much of the early site approval process was underwritten with federal funds. The licensing processes were simplified under federal incentives to crank up nuclear construction.

Entergy is based in New Orleans and operates in four states through myriad subsidiaries. The current Grand Gulf plant went online in 1985 after an 11-year construction period during which the utility used borrowed funds to complete the $3 billion plant. Mississippi and Louisiana, which may wind up competing for a new nuclear plant, both have new laws allowing major utilities to front-load construction costs to ratepayers.

Though Entergy has said the application and overall plan remains active, Fisackerly predicted tentative deadlines likely have moved back about three years. The company had said a decision on whether to go ahead with construction at Grand Gulf, at St. Francisville, La., where early site approval was also granted, or both would depend on market conditions when licenses were granted, perhaps in 2012. If a plant or plants were started, the estimate has been for a five-year, $5 billion investment before start-up in 2017.

Fisackerly stressed the need for standardization of nuclear technology — referencing as an example France, where nearly 90 percent of electric power production is from nuclear plants.

The subject of the application’s current status is expected to be a topic at a community meeting March 23 in Port Gibson.

Renewable energy in Mississippi is a premium, as 60 percent of electricity is generated from natural gas, Fisackerly said. The other 40 percent comes equally from coal and nuclear power.

Natural gas, now trading on commodities markets at less than $4 per 10,000 million British thermal units, powers the utility’s Baxter Wilson Steam Electric Plant in Vicksburg. Fisackerly said such plants are used to supplement base-load generation at Grand Gulf during seasonal rises in energy needs. Use of the fuel was cited when fuel adjustment rates spiked 28 percent last July, but rates have since dropped 34 percent,  Fisackerly said.

Fisackerly said fuel costs at Grand Gulf in 2008 totaled half a cent per kilowatt hour, while the rest of the utility’s energy from gas and coal cost 7 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

“They’re very, very expensive to build, but they’re cheap to run,” Fisackerly said.

Overall residential electricity usage has increased in the past 20 years due to modern conveniences like cell phones and chargers, computers and video games, Fisackerly said. Average monthly residential usage that stood at 900 kilowatt hours in 1989 is now 1,200 kilowatt hours, according to company statistics.

Current efforts pending in Congress to tie renewable energy mandates to wind and solar power are commendable, Fisackerly said, but wouldn’t work for Mississippi because of geography.

Fisackerly, a former office manager for Sen. Thad Cochran before serving in various positions since 2002 with Entergy Mississippi, said NRC funding needs to be higher but expressed confidence in Congress’ view toward nuclear energy.

“I do see a Congress more accepting of nuclear power than they were 10 years ago,” Fisackerly said, adding later that a current hangup with the Obama administration over nuclear waste disposal is balanced by the administration’s stance that reducing carbon emissions cannot happen without nuclear power.

About $50 billion in federal stimulus dollars directed at upgrading the nation’s power infrastructure comes at a critical time, he said, because of emerging “smart grid” technology that involves cost-cutting through automation of meter-reading.

“We’ll be able to look at (a meter) and read it remotely. We can disconnect it remotely, too,” Fisackerly said.

The Columbus, Miss., native was named president and CEO in June after serving as the utility’s vice president of governmental affairs.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.