Bechtel Group Inc. is backing two utilities’...

Bechtel Group Inc. is backing two utilities’ efforts to purchase part of the idle Seabrook, N.H., nuclear power plant from a utility consortium that has halted payments on the reactor. With financial support from San Francisco-based Bechtel, Eastern Utilities Assn. and United Illuminating Co. are trying to purchase the 11.6% Seabrook share that the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. has held since 1976, a Bechtel spokesman said. With MMWEC’s share, the Bechtel-backed group could establish agreements with other New England utilities to provide electricity from a non-nuclear plant if the $5.5 billion Seabrook project is abandoned, according to published reports.