AEHI's jobs aren't really there

Dear editor:

There are problems with the nuclear power plant job opportunities promised by AEHI. One major issue is when would these jobs be available? AEHI has reported the plant opening in 2012 and a job fair to be held at the county commissioner meeting would seem to indicate that employment is imminent. However, this is not the case.

Even if the county commissioners agree to rezone a working farm in a farming valley to heavy industrial, there are still years of hurdles ahead for AEHI: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, the Fish and Game, the Bureau of Land Management, environmental group battles related to fish and aquatic health of the river, archeological artifacts and geophysical interests to name just some of the organizations that would be weighing in on this proposal.

Building a nuclear power plant within a mile of the Snake River, the only industrial complex on the river between Milner and Swan Falls dam, will likely involve all of southern Idaho, not just Elmore County.

Then AEHI would have to find the funding to build the plant. According to Energy/Biz Insider (May-June 2008) and Environmental Science and Technology Journal (April 2007) nuclear power plant construction costs have skyrocketed. Two new units being built at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in South Florida will cost a shocking $24 billion. These units are add-ons to an already existing power plant and do not reflect the enormous cost of a new construction.

Building nuclear is so expensive only blue-chip utility companies or state governments attempt it, not small private investment companies like AEHI. The French AREVA power plants so touted by AEHI are owned and fmanced by the French government. Perhaps for expense reasons alone, the last nuclear power plant built in the United States was the River Bend plant in Louisiana, which began construction in March of 1977. Surmounting all these regulatory hurdles and funding issues will take several years and then and only then can construction begin. The construction phase of the project itself will tack on another 10 years or more.

If AEHI is now in the business of offering the citizens of Elmore County jobs, in good faith they owe the public a list of completed projects with numbers of people currently employed by their company. So far AEHI has only presented proposals, a wish-list of projects they hope to build, and no hard statistics of realized employment.

For the Hammett nuclear plant proposal, AEHI has promised at least "500 high paying jobs." But what kind of education and training are needed? Are local people likely to be employed in these positions or will there only be openings for locals in janitorial staff positions or lesser paying jobs? Five hundred jobs sounds like a lot, but Mountain Home Air Force Base employs 5,100 people. Local agriculture employs approximately 3,000 people. In two years the cheese factory is expected to employ between 550-600 workers.

For the quality of life and nuclear hazards trade-off, a 500-job carrot is not much. Our grandchildren might even consider this a sell-out.

Diana Hooley