UPDATE / WHOOPS : Changing Times Generate Interest in Utility’s Bonds : The Washington system’s 1983 default set a record. But economic growth and other developments once again have attracted investors.

Lee Oxsen still winces at the nickname that was affixed to his utility back when it was synonymous with wild cost overruns in nuclear power construction.

Oxsen much prefers “Supply System.” His preference is understandable. In 1983, when the Washington Public Power Supply System defaulted on $2.25 billion in bonds in the biggest municipal bond failure ever, nothing summed up its problems better than the acronym WHOOPS.

Now, the nickname seems dated. Emboldened by recent successes and faced with booming growth in the Northwest, WPPSS officials are wondering whether they can reclaim one or maybe even both of the nuclear plants mothballed since 1982.

“There is, slowly but surely, growing support for renewing the nuclear option,” said Oxsen, who has spent 34 years in the nuclear industry and took the job of running WPPSS’ No. 1 operating nuclear plant in 1987.

At the time, the 1,100-megawatt facility called WNP No. 2 was shut down more often than it was running. But last week, WNP No. 2 on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington ended the best run in its six-year history. It churned out power for more than 200 days straight before it was turned off for routine maintenance.

“The longer they operate the plant safely, the more people they will convince that nuclear power is a viable option,” said Sharon Blair, spokeswoman for the Bonneville Power Adminis- tration, a federal regional power agency.

Despite the default, WPPSS is now selling more bonds than ever. By year’s end, it will have sold nearly $4-billion worth in a refinancing effort. The sales program also proves WPPSS still can attract investors. That clears “one obstacle to completing the projects” if the utility decides to raise money to complete the mothballed plants, a recent Bonneville report said.

Not far from WNP No. 2, sagebrush grows where thousands of workers once parked their cars and pickup trucks while they welded steel and poured cement in one of the most ambitious nuclear projects ever undertaken. In all, WPPSS had planned to build five plants, three on the Hanford reservation and two more at Satsop, near Olympia.

Then costs got out of hand. A state judge ruled that the utility districts that made up the WPPSS consortium did not have the authority to raise rates to pay added interest costs, so WPPSS defaulted on the bonds sold to finance two of the plants. Since then workers have been turning those two into scrap.

A federal judge is set to hold a hearing in July to divide a $750-million settlement among 25,000 holders of bonds sold to finance those two plants. They will get 24 to 40 cents for every dollar they invested, lawyers say.

But the other two uncompleted plants now await a better day. Inspirational signs posted along the road at the Hanford reservation leading to the mothballed edifice called WNP No. 1 are new. “We can make it happen,” a sign tells workers who remain.

Inside, the plant looks like an unopened package. There are no cobwebs. Not even an insect can be detected. It is two-thirds complete and is maintained at a cost of $5 million a year, like WPPSS’ other nuke-in-waiting in western Washington.

Bonneville will issue a report this summer that likely will reflect little support for finishing the two mothballed plants. But Bonneville officials also say nuclear power is gaining favor as public concern grows over the global warming associated with fossil fuel.

And the fact that refinancing is under way on the bonds WPPSS did not default on is remarkable in itself.

But the utility might find it tougher going if it tries to take one of its plants out of mothballs. “There will be a tremendous battle if they try to turn them back on,” said Lloyd Marbet, an anti-nuclear activist across the Columbia River in Oregon.