Menu
Plans announced to build nuclear power plant near Bruneau
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., (AEHI), a Roanoke, Va., company, has announced plans to build a nuclear power plant in the Bruneau area.
The announcement was made on the company website last week and carried in several stock market watch websites. The announcement caught industry and state officials by surprise.
The company said it had signed a letter of intent on Dec. 1 to "construct, own, and operate a nuclear power plant near Bruneau, Idaho.
"The proposed 1,500 -megawatt light water reactor will provide much needed-electricity for local farm co-op irrigation, while the majority of the power produced will be sold in the national energy market to help address west coast power supply challenges.
"When completed, this will be Idaho's first large commercial nuclear plant and only the second one in the region," the company said in its announcement.
"This is a huge step for an emerging growth company," President and CEO Don Gillispie said,
"We have been working diligently for months developing a plan to enter the operating market, and Idaho is a wonderful opportunity for us to begin fulfilling our corporate vision."
AEHI is an "alternate energy and generating company focused on the purchase, optimization, and construction of green energy sources -- primarily nuclear power plants," the company's website said, adding that, "under the direction of our highly distinguished Board, we seek to evolve with the growing needs of the energy market to provide reliable, low-cost, large scale-power production, as well as exceptional value to stakeholders."
AEHI officials told the Mountain Home News in a series of e-mails that the specific site of the plant has not been determined, as negotiations to obtain an option on the land near Bruneau are still in progress.
The company selected Bruneau after it was contacted by the Rural River Co-op, through Robert Sparrow, regarding building a nuclear power plant in that area to provide power for "much-needed irrigation to the area," a company spokesperson said.
At peak construction, the company anticipates 10,000 jobs would be created. During plant operations the facility would employ roughly 500 people and generate an estimated 1,500 megawatts of power.
Owyhee County Commissioner Chairman Hal Tolmie said the project would be a major boost to the economic development of the area, especially with regard to job creation, but, he added, "As far as I know, they haven't contacted anybody in the county or even the state. They seem to be putting 'the cart before the horse'."
Industry groups and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were surprised by the announcement, saying they knew little about the company, which was formed in September 2005, under the name SunBelt Energy Resources, with the specific intention of "going public and developing clean energy sources, primarily nuclear construction."
In September 2006, having gone public through a "reverse merger," the company changed its name to Alternate Energy Holdings. AEHI trades currently on Pink Sheets, however, an offering is being prepared and filed to move the company onto the NASDAC, company officials said.
A company spokesperson said Gillispie has been in contact with Idaho Power executives regarding the project, "however, all discussions are preliminary at this point and no agreements have been reached."
Idaho Public Utilities Commission Public Information Officer Gene Fadness noted that "We do not have a statewide siting authority for utility companies. The decision to allow the presence of one depends on local authorities like county commissioners."
"When one of our regulated utilities proposes to purchase power from an independent producer, we look at the sales agreement and evaluate the benefit to the public, like lower cost of energy."
Jon Sandoval, Regional Administrator for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said that "We have only heard 'rumblings' about this project."
"If there is any substance to this proposed project, there are so many federal requirements that would need to be met before we would even get involved."
"Pure speculation at this point from DEQ's side... we would evaluate effect on air quality, water quality, amount of high-level and low-level radiation , and disposal of waste from the facility...there are so many components to a project of this magnitude."
The company offered a rough estimation of the timeline for the project, indicating that siting documentation would be submitted to the Nuclear Regulator Commission in early 2007 and construction for non-nuclear phases of the plant could begin as early as 2008.
Company officials said they hoped to begin operation somewhere between 2012-2014. They anticipated the licensing paperwork would cost the company about $10 million and the plant itself, which they said would be a new design, yet to be determined, would cost between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion.
That may be a little optimistic.
According to Adrian Heymer, director of new plant development for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry advocacy, information and lobbying group, "if everything goes well," from the time the company submits its notice of intent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (which it hasn't done yet), the licensing process would probably take 112 months (just over nine years). Using a "template" design could cut that to as little as 84 months (7 years).
In addition, he estimated a company can expect to spend over $100 million just preparing the paperwork for the NRC, and depending on the design of a reactor, construction costs would typically be in the $2.5 billion to $4 billion range.
Heymer said the AHEI announcement "came as a surprise," and the company itself is not well known in the industry. But, he said, the firm does have access to people who have "considerable experience" in the nuclear power industry.
AEHI President and CEO Don Gillispie has personally been involved in the construction of three nuclear power plants, and his assembled board has been involved in the construction of over a dozen plants, a company spokesperson said.
Scott Brunell, a spokesperson for the Nuclear Regulator Commission, said all the NRC knew about the plan was what was contained in the brief three-paragraph company press release.
Brunell said that in general, companies approach the NRC with a letter of intent indicating they expect to submit an application in an 18- to 24-month timeline. "Any applicant needs a significant amount of lead time to gather information for us."
Usually, the first step in the process is to seek a site permit, in which the NRC reviews an extensive amount of geologic, seismologic and hydrologic data about the proposed site. It typically takes about three years to review that data and hold the necessary hearings before a site permit is approved. Although some site preparation work can be done during that time, construction of any of the power plant facilities cannot begin until the next major step of the process is completed, which is the technical review of the plant design, itself.
The NRC has approved four "template" designs, which if used could speed the process, and has several others under review. Review of a template design would normally take about three years, including all hearings, before a company would receive permission to begin construction. A new design, however, will usually take longer, Brunell said.
Once the design is approved, construction permits are issued, and under the new procedures, when the plant is completed the test operations can begin. If everything performs to standards, an operating license is issued.
Brunnel said NRC staff costs alone for the various review and approval processes would normally run about $4 million, a cost born by the applicant.
The first nuclear reactor in the world used to produce power was the EBR-1 reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory in 1955, which provide power to Arco, Idaho, for a few hours.
Although eventually 52 nuclear power plants were built at the INL over the years, none produced any power to the utility grids. All were designed for experimental uses. Among the early reactors constructed at the INL, the reactor for the world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, was designed and built at the INL.
Today, only three experimental reactors are in commission in the deserts near Arco, the rest having either been mothballed or decommissioned (with many torn down), and there are no commercial nuclear power plants currently operating in the state.
Overall, there currently are 103 commercial nuclear power plants operating in the United States, with one that was decommissioned in the 1970s seeking relicensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate.
Following the 1977 accident at the Three Mile Island Unit #2 nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Penn., and the destruction by steam explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine in 1986 (a design not used in the U.S.), public attitudes toward nuclear power became highly negative in the United States, and construction of new plants in this country came to a standstill.
Only one nuclear power plant has been built, licensed to operate, and gone on line in the United States since 1987. That took place ten years ago.
Prior to 1992, it typically took about 12 years to license a nuclear power plant for operation ( although the time ranged from 5.5 to 27 years). But in 1992 Congress approved measures to streamline the permitting process, allowing some portions of the application process to be handled in parallel and the process was further improved with new legislation from Congress in 2005. The result has been a renewed interest in the development of nuclear power in the United States by utility companies and other firms.
Idaho Power, for example, is currently taking public comment on a plan to possibly build a nuclear power plant by 2023.
In addition to the new laws, the approval by the NRC of four "template" reactor designs, rather than having to review new designs, has helped speed the process. In the past, almost every nuclear power plant produced in the United States has been, in some way, a unique design.
Besides siting and design considerations, the NRC also evaluates the company's financial and technical (engineering staff) ability to carry a project to completion.
A past nuclear utility senior executive, Gillespie has served as President of AEHI since its inception. In addition, he is owner of Grace Glens Consulting, a technical management consulting company, which advises senior utility executives on managing commercial nuclear power companies, and other non-nuclear organizations.
Gillispie helped start up a technical management consulting business, INPO, in Atlanta, Ga., and a nuclear operating company, NMC, in Hudson, Wisc., which operates six nuclear power plants with 5,000 employees.
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., was founded by former senior executives in the utility and finance industries specifically to address "the mounting 'energy crisis' affecting the US economy and standard of living today," the company said.
"A key objective for AEHI is decreasing US dependence on foreign sources of power, which are progressively proving less reliable and more political in their influence.
"AEHI's primary initiative is the purchase and optimization of a currently struggling nuclear power plant in the nation's Sunbelt region. After implementing the necessary improvements to maximize the purchased plant's profit margins, AEHI plans to construct an additional nuclear power generating unit on the site of the original plant."
In describing the Bruneau proposal, the company said on its website that "a secondary option exists to capitalize on the offer of a small western utility of a designated site for the construction of a new plant. Depending on the impending negotiations for current plant purchase, as well the economic outlook for utilities' construction, AEHI will seriously consider both alternatives and proceed firstly with the more favorable."
The company website indicated that "AEHI will be the first nuclear generating company in the U.S. and will easily outperform large nuclear and fossil type utilities with their inherent bureaucracy.
"The recent Nuclear Provisions H.R. 6 Energy Policy Act of 2005 has created an ideal market atmosphere for the development of new plants. AEHI will be at the forefront of this opportunity by building an additional unit at its operating plant or constructing a new plant."