Nuclear plant to be explored

[stefan]

Lawmakers meet Nuclear plant to be explored
Critics say proposal would limit public's say in energy development
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune

Lawmakers are exploring how to make it easier to build Utah's first nuclear power plant.

Supporters and opponents are taking their respective places behind a bill that the Legislature's Interim Public Utilities and Technology Committee is considering today.

"This bill will affect our pocketbooks," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).

The environmental group joined forces Tuesday with the Utah Ratepayers Association in a news conference that described the bill as a gift to industry to be paid for by consumers. Meanwhile, the Utah Mining Association said it backs mining, whether for the coal that Utah relies on now or the uranium that might be used in a nuclear plant.

Legislators have been eyeing nuclear power for a couple of years. They kept it on the back burner while the state fought plans to operate a high-level nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshutes Reservation in Tooele County, but the storage plan's defeat has opened the door for the idea to be reconsidered, lawmakers say.

In July, the interim committee directed its attorneys to develop a legislation modeled after a similar Florida law.

The proposal, "Recovery of Costs for Nuclear Power Facilities," largely tilts the financial burdens and risks of nuclear plant development from utility companies and their investors to ratepayers.

One provision would allow nuclear companies to charge ratepayers for construction-related costs long before they receive any power from a nuclear plant. Another would allow the utility to have ratepayers pick up the costs for a nuclear plant that never goes into operation under certain conditions.

Pierce, flanked by Roger Ball, said the law, if passed, would limit the public's say in energy development and cut the funding available for developing renewable energy resources.

"This is truly a boondoggle," she said.

Ball, who leads the ratepayer group, previously directed the state's Consumer Protection Committee. Noting that the only utility in the state that would qualify under the new legislation would be the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, he said the bill "socializes the costs and privatizes the profits" of nuclear development.

The state's two-year energy policy advisory committee put a lower priority on nuclear power, as did the Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on Climate Change. And, while a 2006 energy policy bill said nuclear power should be studied as an option, no such study has been undertaken.

Utah Energy Adviser Dianne Nielson said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has not taken a position on nuclear power aside from insisting that other states should not be permitted to dump their waste in Utah and that high-level waste should be stored instead where it is produced.

She also noted, however, that the state has traditionally focused on finding ways to burn coal, the state's most abundant resource, cleanly. Nuclear, she said, "just doesn't fit our business plan."

David Litvin, executive director of the Utah Mining Association, said his organization supports removing obstacles to safe energy production.

"Uranium and coal are both mining, and we support mining," he said.

"We need all of the energy sources we can get to meet our demands."

[ericchile]

The problem is not with Nuclear power by any means.... its our government.

We have too much mix of government and corporate. If our utilities were really utilities I would not mind paying for the risk of building such a plant. The problem is our utilities are really big business with shareholders and ceo's making big bucks hiding behind government entities.

I guess if we are storing the nations nuclear waste we might as well reap the benefits as well... Where is the large body of water your going to build it next too. And is all this electricity going to be used in Utah or just shipped to Las Vegas like the other plants we have built in the last decade.

[sparker1]

Yeah, whoever bears the risk should reap the eventual profits. While I think nuclear is a better source than oil or coal fired plants, I don't think it should produce these insane profits for a corporation when they were unwilling to shoulder the investment risk. I also disagree with power produced in one locale for almost exclusive benefit of another. I remember the Navajo man who lives close to the Navajo Generating Station telling me he can't get electricity at his house.

[scoutabout]

The NRC application alone is $100 million. We need to incentivize investment in steam electric power.

[Sombeech]

Nuclear, or "Nucular" Power is actually pretty clean. It's very low on CO2 emissions which should help the environment.

There's just so much paranoia about the term Nuke, everybody immediately thinks of mutations or chemical leaks.

You really get more for your money with Nuclear powerplants.

I'm all for wind power as well, but you don't have to put them by the flippin' freeway! Have you seen the new ones they're installing just east of Evanston? Why couldn't they have gone just 1 mile south? Anyways, I'm still fine with seeing the fans, they're cool, but they don't always need to be by the freeway.

[sparker1]

I'm still fine with seeing the fans, they're cool, but they don't always need to be by the freeway

And don't put them in the Swell, or the rim of Grand Canyon, etc, etc. Put 'em out there where the oil wells already muck up the scene. Oh, they have to be where it's windy?

[stefan]

Nuclear power plant proposed for Utah
World Nuclear News
18 October 2007

A private equity group has proposed the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the US state of Utah and has already agreed water rights for the plant. However, the involvement of two state lawmakers in the project has drawn criticism from opponents.

Transition Power Development (TPD) is reviewing potential sites for the plant in Utah. The company plans to spend some $100 million on obtaining a licence from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct the proposed 1500 MWe plant. However, TPD plans to then sell the licence to another company which would actually construct and operate the plant.

TPD, formed in February 2007, signed an agreement with the Kane County Water Conservancy District (KCWCD) on 20 September to secure the rights to water to cool the nuclear reactor. The water will be drawn from Lake Powell. Under the agreement, Transition Power will pay KCWCD $1 million annually for some 30,000 acre-feet of water (37.1 million cubic metres) once the plant begins operating. TPD paid the conservancy district $10,000 upon signing the agreement and will pay $100,000 annually for five years until construction of the plant commences. It will then pay $500,000 per year until power generation begins.

However, critics of the proposed plant have called into question conflicts of interest of two Utah state representatives promoting it. Representative Aaron Tilton, Republican for Springville, is a partner in Transition Power. Representative Mike Noel, Republican for Kanab, is an executive director of KCWCD.

Noel is chairman of the Utah's Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Committee and Tilton is vice chairman. In addition, both men are members of the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee, which is co-chaired by Noel. The interim committee is considering legislation that would assist utilities in constructing nuclear power plants in the state. A bill to such effect was discussed by the committee on 18 July and 19 September.

Tilton said the criticism of his interests was "fairly predictable," but added that there has been no legislation before the committee that would help his company and he disclosed his involvement in Transition Power when he felt it appropriate. Noel said that he does not benefit in any way from the deal between KCWCD and TPD, either through the conservancy district or his private environmental consulting company.

Nils Diaz, a former chairman of the NRC, is a policy advisor to Transition Power.