Business Notes NUCLEAR POWER

Beset by safety problems and mismanagement, the Long Island Lighting Co.'s $5.4 billion Shoreham nuclear plant has been denied permission to operate at full power since it was completed in 1984. Reason: lack of an approved evacuation plan. As community opposition has grown, the facility has been the subject of legal and political wrangling. Last week a federal jury found LILCO and its former president, Wilfred Uhl, guilty of lying to state officials about Shoreham's progress in 1978 and 1984 in order to obtain rate increases to help finance the project. Uhl and LILCO were fined $22.8 million.

But that is far from the utility's only problem. Six months ago, LILCO made a pact with New York Governor Mario Cuomo to sell Shoreham for $1 to the state, which would then scrap it. In exchange, LILCO was promised generous rate increases to help recover its investment in the plant. The deal may still go through, but last week's verdict brought LILCO face to face with another threat: a $2 billion-to-$4 billion class-action suit on behalf of nearly 1 million customers that could drive it into bankruptcy.