NuStart Energy Development LLC, a consortium of utilities and manufacturers, passed up South Carolina's Savannah River Site Thursday in picking locations for the country's next generation of nuclear power plants.

The Aiken compound, which used to produce nuclear weapons and now stores radioactive waste, was one of six finalists, but NuStart decided to pursue federal permits to build nuclear plants in northeast Alabama and Gulfport, Miss.

NuStart President Marilyn Kray announced the decision at the National Press Club in Washington.

"We're disappointed, of course. We thought we had a good shot at it," said Mal McKibben, executive director of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, an Aiken-based nonprofit that lobbies for nuclear initiatives.

Most of the CNTA members work, or have worked, at SRS, where payrolls have been decimated as government contracts run out and cleanup projects wind down. Westinghouse cut 1,100 positions this year. A new nuclear plant would give the community a much-needed boost.

It would take an estimated 2,000 people four years to build the facility and another 250 to 400 workers to run and maintain it. The state Commerce Department submitted the site's proposal.

A nuclear plant also would provide a stable and relatively cheap power source for businesses and residents whose power bills have been surging in step with coal and natural gas prices. Both Scana Corp. and Santee Cooper expressed interest in owning part of or buying power from a Savannah River nuclear plant.

NuStart formed last year with the goal of winning federal approval to build a nuclear plant, something that has not happened in almost 30 years. Using 50-50 matching grants from the Department of Energy, it hopes to secure a license by 2010. Any of its member companies, including Charlotte-based Duke Energy and Raleigh-based Progress Energy, could then buy the license and build a reactor.

SRS had a few big advantages, namely a very secure location and a big pool of potential workers with nuclear experience. But it does not have a network of transmission lines and it is not owned by a utility, like most of the other finalists.

Local utilities said the announcement does not change their plans to pursue nuclear power. Scana and Santee Cooper plan to decide early next year whether to build a new reactor at SRS or next to a plant they co-own in the Upstate.