Developer shelves plan for nuclear power plant near Ester

A developer is dropping plans for a nuclear power plant near Ester, in Interior Alaska.

John Reeves told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that signals from federal nuclear regulators indicated his prospective supplier, Hyperion Power Generation, still had years before designs for its small-scale energy units are ready for the marketplace.

At 56 years old, he says that’s too long for him.

In June, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said regulators have a five-year backlog as they review emerging designs for new power plants.

He added many things could have gone wrong in 15 years of preparation.

Electricity prices could go down, for example, or a new generation in the Fairbanks community could collectively wind up opposing the project.

Reeves applied for a zoning permit earlier this summer to prepare 4 acres south of Fairbanks for the plant. His plan had been to work with Golden Valley Electric Association on a power purchase agreement where the cooperative would buy the power.

Reeves said he has no other immediate plans for the 4-acre site.

Hyperion Power Generation reports on its Web site that its proposed modules are about the size of a hot tub but are powerful enough to run a 25-to-30-megawatt power plant—roughly the same capacity as the Aurora Energy power plant in downtown Fairbanks.

Hyperion said the modules will be safe and produce little waste material.

No U.S. nuclear plants have been built in decades. Traditional nuclear power plants are expensive to build and they produce radioactive waste.

—The Associated Press

Editor’s note: See previous article in the June 28 issue of Petroleum News, at http://www.starzhost.com/petroleumnews/pdfarch/130840128.pdf#page=3