Time is running short for the bill letting Missouri’s next nuclear power plant project move ahead..Secret negotiations have kept it from coming up for debate.

Senator Robin Wright-Jones is handling the bill that would let utilities assess a small fee on consumers to pay for finding the location of a second nuclear plant–Callaway Two as it’s generally called.

She surprised the senate floor leader Tuesday afternoon by not bringing the bill forth when he had cleared debate time for it. She wants some disagreeing sides to get together first.

She won’t say who is negotiating or what the issue is.  However the former lawmaker who wrote the original public counsel law in the 70s was in the capitol for a meeting with the sponsor of one of the bills under discussion.

Wright-Jones hopes to have an agreement by the middle of next week.

 Listen to interview with Sen. Wright-Jones 3:52 mp3