Missouri Senate to debate nuclear bill today

Senate leaders expect to begin debating today the bill that would let a Missouri utility company charge its customers for the costs of seeking and winning a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission early site permit.

Ameren Missouri and a statewide consortium of commercial, cooperative and municipal electric utilities support the idea.

Winning the permit would show that the Callaway Nuclear Plant site would be a suitable location for the construction of a second reactor, nearly 30 years after the first one began operating.

"We're looking forward to getting it on the floor and having a full debate on it," freshman Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said Monday evening. "We want to make sure that no kind of parliamentary procedures prohibit it from coming to a vote."