NEI Nuclear Notes

We’ve sometimes taken a look at nuclear energy support – nascent or realized – in several states. Communities have occasionally weighed in, as potential hosts for consolidated storage sites, for instance. The folks of Lea and Eddy Counties in Nevada have consistently voiced support for Yucca Mountain. Washington City, with a population of about 22,000, has gone a little further . During a meeting Wednesday night, the City Council approved an agreement with the “Carbon Free Power Project” that will provide funds toward identifying potential sites for a nuclear power plant. On first glance, this is a bit puzzling, as the city would seem unlikely to set up and run a nuclear facility without state and industrial cooperation – at least, not by itself. Indeed, this is true. NuScale Power has proposed to build a power plant housing 12 of the compact reactors and produce an estimated 600 megawatts of power. The plant is slated to be built in the area of Idaho Falls, Idaho. If th...

In St. George Utah : City staff recommended that the City Council hold off on committing to a project by NuScale Power. Based out of Oregon, NuScale proposes to build compact nuclear reactors that would be housed in a power plant built near Idaho Falls, Idaho. The compact reactors are designed to produce 40-50 megawatts of power. St. George nestles in the southern part of the state and is one of its fastest growing areas. The town has about 75,000 people, but it is that “fastest growing” aspect that might have motivated interest in small reactors. Let’s not call the decision to slow walk the commitment an excess of caution, at least initially, just caution. Though St. George is one of UAMPS biggest utilities, city staff have recommended against committing to any binding agreements, saying they want the city to maintain flexibility over where it gets its power. The cost of being involved could run into the millions of dollars, said Laurie Mangum, the city’s energy ser...

Sort of a silly article from the New York Times: Internet companies often cloak themselves in an image of environmental awareness. But some companies that essentially live on the Internet are moving facilities to North Carolina, Virginia, northeastern Illinois and other regions whose main sources of energy are coal and nuclear power, the report said. Virginia generates 36 percent of its electricity from nuclear, 35 percent from coal; North Carolina, 56 percent coal, 31 percent nuclear; and Illinois, 47 percent nuclear, 46 percent coal. So, where clean energy is concerned, internet companies are doing reasonably well given the world we live in. And some want to improve their profile further: Apple immediately disputed the report’s findings, saying that the company planned to build two huge renewable energy projects at its recently opened data center in North Carolina that would eventually offset much of the coal-fired and nuclear energy use. To me, this sounds like th...

Not good news : Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his decision to protect the iconic Grand Canyon and its vital watershed from the potential adverse effects of additional uranium and other hardrock mining on over 1 million acres of federal land for the next 20 years. This is about the Arizona Strip, which straddles the north edge of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. Naturally, no one would support a move that would in any way damage these areas – doing so would bring major heat down on the mining industry – but no one has been able to show that mining there has damaged any aspect, physical or visual, of the neighboring canyon. Both Arizona’s and Utah’s Congressional delegations argued against withdrawing the land. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who certainly has institutional knowledge, noted that legislation back in the 80s agreed to keep the strip active while withdrawing other lands in the area from consideration . “The Obama Administration’s ba...

Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert talked about the importance of nuclear energy during his State of the State address earlier this year – then the accident at Fukushima happened – then - “The lessons we learn from that horrific situation [in Japan] must not be lost as we discuss any possible future nuclear power generation here,” he said during the release of his 10-year energy plan in March. “The disasters in Japan, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island will not preempt the debate of nuclear power — but they certainly will influence it.” That seems sensible enough. A little more surprising: While noncommittal about the proposed Utah project, Herbert insists that nuclear power is “safer than ever” and still up for discussion in his state. Or maybe not so surprising : Approximately 82 percent of the electricity produced in Utah in 2008 was from coal-fired generation, with six plants active statewide, according to the Utah Geological Survey. Natural gas accounted for the secon...

Yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he continues to support nuclear energy, a view I found exceptionally heartening, especially since he might have said nothing at all. Now, today in Utah :  Nuclear power must be an important part of Utah's future energy portfolio, Gov. Gary Herbert said Friday, adding that a 10-year plan he's scheduled to unveil will emphasize the need for the energy source alongside traditional fossil fuels and renewable sources. He could have waited a week or a month to show his plan, but he did it today, as scheduled. "The practical reality is that going forward the demand will increase, and the equation doesn't work without nuclear," he [Herbert] said. Wow. He’s right, of course, but this is a very striking stance given that Utah currently has no nuclear plant, so there is no economic imperative to support nuclear energy to support a plant’s workers. No, if Utah gets a plant, it’ll be the first one there. Color me i...

Christopher Paine, the Washington-based director of the nuclear program for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, had seemed for awhile to be considering nuclear energy as a viable addition to the energy mix, especially as increased awareness of climate change altered the terms of the discussion. About a year ago, he said this : "Our position is that nuclear is not off the table as an energy source, but we believe there are cheaper, cleaner and faster ways to reduce pollution and provide reliable energy than nuclear power." But Paine has now been making the rounds in Utah with the old arguments made in the old way. Right now, at a time when nuclear power is increasingly being considered a cleaner source of energy than coal-fired plants, Paine questions the claim by some that the alternative of actually scaling up nuclear power production can be done safely around the world, even under international ownership and control. "If histor...

Get all the details from Idaho Samizdat .

Details from the Deseret Morning News .

Details from the Salt Lake Tribune .

Details from the Deseret News .

From last week's Deseret News : Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday he supports high-level nuclear waste storage in Nevada — even though Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. praised McCain as the only GOP presidential candidate who understands Western issues. Huntsman, along with most elected officials and voters in the West, opposes the proposed Yucca Mountain facility, citing concerns about radioactive waste being transported through Utah and other states on its way to the site. But McCain mocked a question about the dangers of transporting nuclear waste while speaking with Utah reporters. "Oh, you have to travel through states ... I am for Yucca Mountain. I'm for storage facilities. It's a lot better than sitting outside power plants all over America," he said, then added, "I don't mean to be sarcastic. I apologize. But I believe we can transport waste safely."