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Proposed nuclear plant obtains land
Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., the firm that hopes to build a nuclear power plant in the Bruneau/Grand View area, last week announced an agreement with Idaho landowner and businessman James C. Hilliard on his land for a proposed 1,600 megawatt energy complex in Owyhee County in Southwestern Idaho.
Hilliard owns 4,000 acres located near Bruneau and a portion of his property will be the site of Idaho's first commercial nuclear/biofuels plant, to be named the Idaho Energy Complex. Heat generated as a byproduct of the reactor will be used to produce ethanol and methane made from local agricultural sources.
"We could not be more pleased and honored to have an Idaho native, successful businessman and entrepreneur like Jim Hilliard partnering with us in the Idaho Energy Complex," said AEHI President and CEO Don Gillispie. "He will be invaluable in advising the company on business and financial matters as we go forward in this venture."
It didn't please everyone. Jeremy Maxand, executive director of the Snake River Alliance, an Idaho environmental group, said that "whether you agree with nuclear or not, you couldn't pick a more inappropriate place to site a nuclear reactor, which tells me either AEHI doesn't care or just doesn't know, and either of these is bad news for Idaho. CJ Strike and the surrounding area is an invaluable resource for Idahoans."
AEHI had originally intended to purchase the land from Hilliard but after further discussions, Hilliard has now become a major investor in the project by offering his land. The plant would create about 500 full-time jobs, thousands during construction and hundreds more through subsidiary spending, Gillispie has said.
"I look forward to working with Alternate Energy Holdings on the Idaho Energy Complex -- this will bring jobs and economic security to all of Southwest Idaho," Hilliard said.
"Farming communities and urban centers will benefit from continued access to reliable, inexpensive power and farmers will have another market for their crops and ag waste."
Hilliard, raised in Nampa, has lived all over the U.S. and owned a number of business enterprises, including banks, ice rinks, commercial real estate, farms, auto dealerships and radio and television stations. He was a senior vice president with John Blair and Company, an advertising sales corporation that did over a billion dollars a year in business that was publicly traded but has since been sold. Hilliard was president of the Indiana Pacers professional basketball enterprise and currently owns radio stations in New Mexico, Dallas and Florida, where he currently lives.
"I know something about opportunity and I think the Idaho Energy Complex is the biggest, most exciting thing to come to Idaho since the announcement of a couple of high-tech companies in the '70s," Hilliard said.
Idaho does need to develop more energy sources, according to AEHI officials, who noted that the January 2007 Idaho Energy Plan from the Legislative Interim Council on Energy, Environment and Technology, contends that Idaho is vulnerable to the economic effects of emissions regulation on imported coal power and relicensing of the state's hydro plants.
The report notes Idaho imports 80 percent of its power from fossil fuels and over $3 billion that Idahoans spend on energy each year leaves the state. Gillispie said the Idaho Energy Complex will bring and keep money in Idaho, make the state energy independent and sustain the agriculture industry by producing biofuels.
Gillispie said this is a good time to propose a combined reactor/biofuels project like the Idaho Energy Complex.
While building a nuclear power plant is a huge undertaking, federal officials have streamlined the process, starting with Congressional action in 1992 allowing some portions of the application process to be handled in parallel. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 also sought to simplify the process.
Concern over global warming has also led some utility and environmental groups to revisit nuclear energy as a way to generate large amounts of electricity with no emissions of greenhouse gasses. According to a March 23 story in USA Today, at least four major environmental organizations are willing to consider nuclear power as part of a long-term solution to global warming -- The Pew Center on Global Climate Change, The Union of Concerned Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense.
"We hope Idaho environmental groups study the positions of these worldwide environmental organizations and become open to considering that nuclear power, when done correctly, has a role in meeting our energy needs while curbing production of greenhouse gasses," Gillispie said.
In another sign that nuclear power is right for Idaho, Gillispie added, Idaho Power's 2006 Energy Plan For The Future calls for the company to begin purchasing nuclear energy in 2023 from a reactor that has been earmarked for the Idaho National Laboratory.
Nuclear power is already common in the United States, where 104 reactors operate at 66 power plants, producing about one-fifth of the country's energy needs, or 782 billion kilowatt-hours. Vermont gets nearly three-fourths of its energy from nuclear power.
At present, Gillespie noted, 441 reactors operate in 31 countries, producing over 2,628 billion kilowatt-hours of energy. Western European nations, famous for their policies to protect the environment, generate around 35 percent of their electricity from reactors, more than from any other source. France and Belgium use reactors for 78 percent and 55 percent respectively.
Gillispie said the Idaho Energy Complex would create similar economic benefits to those of the Wolf Creek Generating Station near Burlington, Kan.
Generating over 1,200 megawatts, Wolf Creek employs more than 1,000 people and the average 2003 income of a plant worker was $71,000. It also paid nearly $25 million in taxes.
The Idaho Energy Complex will need about half that many workers to generate 33 percent more power, Gillespie said, because newer plants are designed with fewer components and more automation, resulting in reduced staff and lower operating cost.
Gillispie, a past nuclear utility senior executive, has served as president of AEHI since its inception and is owner of Grace Glens Consulting, which advises senior utility executives on managing commercial nuclear power companies.
The Idaho Energy Complex would benefit the agricultural industry in at least two ways, he contended. It would provide a market for crops and ag waste to produce biofuels such as ethanol; and it would provide low-cost electricity to the many farms that must run irrigation pumps.
Excess heat from reactors must be vented and cooled, while at the same time producing heat to make biofuels drives up production costs. By combining the reactor and biofuels components, the problem of excess heat becomes an opportunity to help make biofuels more competitive, he said.
In all, the Idaho Energy Complex would create enough power for about 1.5 million homes, or three times the number of homes in Idaho. Nationally, energy use is expected to increase 30 percent between 2005 and 2030, according to the 2007 Annual Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
"Idaho could go from having to import 50 percent of its power to being a significant regional supplier of power," Gillispie said.
Gillispie said spent reactor fuel can be stored on-site for 25 years, as is customary at power plants. It will then be sent to a reprocessing station (soon to be constructed as per the 2005 Energy Policy Act). The high-level waste will then be converted to more fuel, while the low-level waste will continue to be kept in repositories around the country, as it has been for decades, he said.
Gillispie countered information in a Feb. 14 Associated Press story, where a Seattle consultant said nuclear power isn't feasible in the Northwest for, among other reasons, the high cost and scarcity of uranium.
"I wish the media would have talked to me -- or anyone in the industry -- for some balance in that story. There is an abundance of uranium in the world," Gillispie said. "Fuel prices are high at the moment because many uranium mines and processing plants were closed over the past 20 years, when demand stagnated. As of 2004, another 30 reactors were under construction worldwide and some 24 countries were planning or proposing to build 104 reactors. Mines are reopening around the world and will catch-up with demand and prices will fall."
The project is subject to many local, state, and federal approvals. Gillispie hopes to be able to bring a proposal to Owyhee County officials this spring.
Gillispie and other AEHI representatives have met with federal officials since their December announcement and they plan meetings with state and local officials and other stakeholders.
"This won't be easy, but nothing significant is ever done easily," Hilliard said.
"The Idaho Energy Complex will represent Idaho's commitment to energy diversity and security in the 21st Century -- much as our home-grown hydropower network represents the first generation of energy investment."