Seeing is believing for Maryland’s governor.  After touring the state’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, Gov. Martin O’Malley supports building an additional nuclear reactor at the site.

O’Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and other state officials toured Constellation Energy’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in May, after which he shared his support for a third reactor at the site about 40 miles from Annapolis.  Constellation submitted a license application for the reactor last July to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“It is a huge moral challenge and it is a moral imperative,” O’Malley said when discussing the role of nuclear energy in reducing greenhouse gases.  He believes the new reactor also will slow the rising rates consumers are paying for electricity.

In fact, the nuclear energy industry’s average electricity production cost was 1.76 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2007, lower than other electricity-generating sources such as coal-fired plants at 2.47 cents/kwh and natural gas-fired plants at 6.78 cents/kwh.

Constellation hopes to begin construction of the new reactor by the end of the year.  If the NRC approves the license application, the reactor would nearly double the plant’s current generating capacity.