Jul. 2--Federal regulators halted their review of AmerenUE's application for a second nuclear plant in Callaway County, making it less likely that the St. Louis-based utility will try to revive the $6 billion project.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission notified AmerenUE of the decision in a letter issued Monday -- a week after the St. Louis-based utility asked the agency to "suspend all activities" related to the construction and operating license application.

"We decided it was not prudent to have NRC continue its review," AmerenUE spokesman Mike Cleary said Wednesday.

AmerenUE filed the 8,000-page license application last July even though it hadn't committed to building a second nuclear plant. But in April, the utility pulled back from the project because the General Assembly wouldn't approve legislation that would allow it to bill customers for financing costs during construction.

AmerenUE will continue to look for opportunities to recover some of the costs associated with preparing the license application and reserving key steel forgings, Cleary said.

The Missouri Public Service Commission last year prohibited AmerenUE from recovering those costs from electricity customers. But the utility could still recoup some costs by selling its forging reservations to another nuclear plant developer.

In its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ameren Corp. said it had booked $75 million in costs to date and has another $85 million of contractual obligations related to the forgings.

In the same filing, the company said it may take a charge to earnings in a future period if "all efforts are permanently abandoned with respect to the future construction of a new nuclear unit in Missouri."

Cleary declined to say whether Ameren planned take a charge when the company reports second-quarter earnings.

AmerenUE is scheduled to file plans with Missouri utility regulators in February 2011 outlining how it will meet electricity demand in coming years.

The utility has long said that it would need to build a new baseload power plant -- a large plant that runs 24 hours, seven days a week -- sometime between 2018 and 2020, though the recession has reduced electricity demand and may give AmerenUE some extra time to add generating capacity.

"We are going to need another baseload power plant sometime in the future," Cleary said.

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