Sep. 21--Don Gillispie is confident he can do what Warren Buffett couldn't: Build a nuclear power plant in Idaho.

The retired nuclear industry executive came to Idaho in 2006 to build a new generation reactor to help jump start the industry where he spent his career. But his dream has hit several snags along the way.

This year, he moved the proposed plant across the Snake River to Elmore County from Owyhee County. He angered local residents in a fiery June 16 public meeting in Glenns Ferry where one anti-nuclear activist was arrested for trespassing and some longtime residents felt insulted. He also has attracted the opposition of the Snake River Alliance, one of Idaho's most vocal environmental groups.

As part of his company's annual report recently, independent auditors expressed concerns on whether he even has enough money to continue.

But Gillispie remains undaunted. He has applied to rezone the land for his proposed plant in rural Hammett and hearings are scheduled in October and November before the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Committee. He's still confident he can secure loans for billions of dollars, run the regulatory gantlet and build a nuclear plant in Idaho.

"I'm a very persistent person," Gillispie said. Anti-nuclear activists are "not going to run me off."

Buffett's subsidiary, MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Company, pulled the plug on its proposed nuclear plant near Payette after deciding it would cost too much to be economically feasible. Gillispie faces the same realities, along with questions about his personality and credibility.

To his supporters, Gillispie is a visionary crusader for nuclear power with integrity. To his opponents, he is an arrogant promoter who is spreading false information about his proposed plant and nuclear power.

To succeed, he may have to convince Idahoans not only that nuclear power is safe but that he's the man to build here. Idaho Republican Sen. Curt McKenzie of Nampa, co-chairman of the Legislature's interim committee on energy, said he wants to hear more about the project but that lawmakers are supportive of nuclear power.

"People want to be reassured," McKenzie said. "They want to understand how the process works and how it's going to affect the community."

INVESTORS ON HIS SIDE, NEIGHBORS NOT SO SURE

So far, Gillispie has had mixed results. He has held dozens of meetings that attracted more than $10 million in investments. Some have been small investors like Boise doctor William Loveland, who invested in Gillispie's company after several presentations.

"He does his homework," Loveland said. "I support the project 100 percent."

But Hammett farmer Nancy Blanksma has a completely different impression. She went to the June 16 meeting to learn more about the nuclear plant Gillispie was planning to build only 200 yards from the 960-acre farm her husband, Jeff, and his father transformed from desert in the early 1970s.

Today, with water pumped out of the Snake River, they grow wheat, potatoes, alfalfa and beans and plan to turn the farm over to their children. When she raised questions about the plant, Gillispie told her if she didn't like it, maybe he'd buy them out.

"His remarks were extremely flippant," Blanksma said. "He didn't give people answers to the questions we deserved. He didn't even try. He came across arrogantly, as if he didn't care if he had our opinions or not."

Gillispie acknowledged his reaction to Blanksma and other Elmore County residents was poor and he vowed to apologize personally. But he blamed his reaction on the hostile atmosphere created, he said, by the arrest of Twin Falls anti-nuclear activist Peter Rickards and the large number of outsiders at the meeting.

"The Glenns Ferry mayor told me these people weren't from there," Gillispie said. "Everything was an attack, instead of legitimate questions."

DECADES OF NUCLEAR EXPERIENCE

Gillispie has faced tough questions before.