NEWS RELEASE — Claiborne County, Miss. — The Board of Supervisors of Claiborne County Monday passed a resolution that strongly supports the construction of a new nuclear plant in Claiborne County adjacent to the existing Grand Gulf Nuclear Station that is owned and operated by Entergy Corporation.
The Board's action was designed to make it publicly clear that Claiborne County would like to see a new nuclear plant built here.
"This board and the vast majority of Claiborne County residents support and want to see the construction of a second nuclear reactor at Grand Gulf". "This board understands the importance of Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in terms of jobs created both locally and throughout central and southwest Mississippi and the fee in lieu of taxes paid by Grand Gulf to Claiborne County". "We want to see the construction of a new nuclear plant in this community. This board wants everyone to understand our position on this issue" said Charles Shorts, President of the Claiborne Board of Supervisors. "This board feels that building a new nuclear plant here will be very beneficial to the citizens of Claiborne County."
The resolution said the Board considered nuclear energy and Grand Gulf in particular as "a safe, low cost, emission-free energy source."
For those reasons, the Claiborne County Board of Supervisors had not participated in opposition activities to Entergy Nuclear's application to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an Early Site Permit (ESP) for a new unit at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station. The Early Site Permit only qualifies the site as suitable for a new nuclear unit and is good for 20 years. Entergy has made no decision as yet to build a second unit.