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Fairbanks businessman eyes small-scale nuclear power Plan is second public proposal for small-scale nuclear power in Alaska; would be in Ester Stefan Milkowski For Petroleum News
Geothermal, hydroelectric and wind power have all been pitched as solutions to Alaska’s high energy prices. But what about nuclear?
Fairbanks businessman John Reeves recently took the first step toward developing a small-scale nuclear power plant on land he owns in the town of Ester south of Fairbanks. Reeves is asking the Fairbanks North Star Borough Planning Commission for a conditional use permit allowing a nuclear power plant on the land.
“In my opinion, it’s the best energy there is,” Reeves said in an interview June 22. “No greenhouse gases, no carbon dioxide.”
Reeves said he figures he could produce power for 4 to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour and sell the power to Golden Valley Electric Association at a profit.
Reeves is a special assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. This project is not connected to his state work; the proposal is through his company, Fairbanks Gold Co. LLC.
A public hearing on the permit request is scheduled for August.
Reeves is looking specifically at a design proposed by the Santa Fe, N.M.-based company Hyperion Power Generation Inc. The plant, which has not yet been certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or tested, is meant to produce 25 megawatts of electricity and to operate for five to 10 years without refueling. The company hopes to mass produce the units and sell them for $25 million to $30 million each.
Reeves’ proposal follows a similar proposal by the City of Galena to install a 10-megawatt reactor being developed by Toshiba Corp. and Westinghouse Electric Co. that is designed to operate for 30 years without refueling.
Both projects face significant regulatory challenges likely to last several years. Marvin Yoder, Galena’s city manager from 1996 to 2006, said the city started working with Toshiba in 2003 but likely won’t see the plant until 2017 at the earliest. In an interview June 24, Yoder said the low-maintenance plant is still an attractive option for the rural community. “It’s just whether or not the community can afford to wait till 2017, 2018 to see something happen.”
New technology The Hyperion plant Reeves is hoping to bring to Alaska relies on technology developed as a “side project” by an inventor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to Deborah Blackwell, Hyperion’s vice president of public policy. The self-contained unit would be “about the size of two ordinary backyard hot tubs” and would be buried underground, she said.
Blackwell said Hyperion has figured out the basic technology and is working now to create a design that can be easily manufactured. She added that the company’s goal is to be able to fill orders from customers within a few months.
Blackwell said the plant was originally designed for the Alberta tar sands but has received significant attention from around the world for all kinds of applications. In addition to Reeves, Blackwell said two “big corporate” entities operating in Alaska have expressed interest in the plant.
Permitting challenges Hyperion hopes to deliver its first units in 2013, but the regulatory process could push that date back significantly.
“They are essentially at square one,” Scott Burnell, a spokesman at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said June 23. The first step in the regulatory process involves a company securing a design certification for a given technology. Hyperion has had informal meetings with the NRC, but has yet to exchange any technical information or apply for certification, a process that takes “several years,” Burnell said. Once the plant itself is certified, a developer would still need NRC approval to build and operate the plant, which can also take years.
Burnell said Toshiba is “somewhat further along” in the certification process, but added that the unusual nature of both plants will likely lengthen NRC’s review process.
While the NRC would permit the plant, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation may also have a role, according to Douglas Dasher, an environmental engineer with the department. State statutes drafted in the 1970s identify the department as the lead agency in permitting nuclear power plants, but the statutes were never used and the department has not drafted regulations, he said.
Mixed support Support for nuclear power among Alaska’s political leadership and local residents is mixed.
“Absolutely I can see nuclear playing a role in our energy agenda,” Gov. Sarah Palin wrote in an e-mail June 23. “Small-scale nuclear is an exciting prospect and fits with development of our more conventional sources of non-renewables.”
Rep. Craig Johnson, an Anchorage Republican, introduced legislation in March aimed at easing the development of nuclear power in Alaska. The legislation, HB 191, would modify the state permitting process and expand public financing options for nuclear power projects.
“(HB 191) does not advocate nuclear above other energy sources,” Johnson wrote in a sponsor statement. “It simply levels the playing field so that a community or region may consider the source of power along with other sources.”
The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, a coalition of First Nations and Alaska tribes, passed a resolution in 2005 opposing nuclear development within the Yukon River watershed.
“We know that an accident could jeopardize the health of the entire river,” Rob Rosenfeld, the group’s Yukon region director, said June 24.
Yoder blamed the opposition to the Galena project on nuclear’s stigma in the U.S. and argued that Toshiba’s sealed design would ensure that no radiation is released. “It’s certainly not going to affect the Yukon,” he said.
Deirdre Helfferich, publisher of the Ester Republic, said most people in Ester aren't taking Reeve's proposal seriously, but added that she expects there to be opposition if the project does start moving.
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