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10 Strikes Against Nuclear Power

10 Strikes Against Nuclear Power

Owyee Nuclear Power Plant Developers Refuse to Comply with Approval Process to Build Towers

Snake River Alliance News Release - Nov. 30, 2007 - For Immediate Release

Contact: Andrea Shipley - Executive Director - Office: (208) 344-9161 - Cell: (208) 514-8713

BOISE - Two towers have been built in Owyhee County contrary to Owyhee County’s denial of the towers in early November. One tower is a cellular tower, although there is no contract with a cellular company. The other tower is a meteorological tower designed to gather wind and other data required to process an application to build what could become Idaho’s first commercial nuclear power plant.

Virginia-based Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., wants to build a 1,600-megawatt nuclear reactor on C.J. Strike Reservoir near Bruneau, Idaho. Building the towers is the first step in the long approval process for the plant. The fact the permit to build the towers was denied by the commission and the towers were erected this week anyway shows AEHI’s disregard for county procedures and raises serious questions about whether the company plans to follow other county requirements..

The Snake River Alliance learned Friday that despite the lack of a county-required conditional use permit and building permit, the nuclear power plant’s developers proceeded to erect the two towers at issue. Owyhee County officials didn’t learn until Thursday that AEHI put the towers up without the required permits, which is a violation of county ordinance. The issue is expected to be brought to the County Commission at its Monday meeting.

Andrea Shipley, executive director of the Snake River Alliance noted that under Idaho law, only 2 of 3 county commissioners are needed to approve building permits for the proposed nuclear plant.

“A state siting mechanism has to be in place because there is too much at stake for county commissioners,” Shipley said. “Watching AEHI attempting to run roughshod over county procedures at this early stage doesn’t bode well for public confidence the company’s commitment to working with state and local governments.

“Furthermore, Idaho does not need nuclear power,” Shipley said. “We have four to five times more undeveloped renewable energy potential than our total 1999 electricity consumption. But Idaho’s vast wind, geothermal, and solar potential cannot be achieved in our current political and regulatory climate.”

In the first application for the towers submitted to the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission, it was unclear who would be responsible for the tower’s maintenance, how long the tower would remain standing, its exact location, and the ownership of the property, among other things.

County officials say AEHI withdrew a follow-up permit application on Tuesday and that the power plant developer now claims no public hearings are required for a conditional use permit for the towers. Attention now turns to the County Commission, which on Monday will discuss whether to sanction AEHI for violating county ordinances and if so what those sanctions will be.

The Snake River Alliance is a nonprofit organization working towards energy solutions for Idaho and dedicated to serving as Idaho's nuclear watchdog.

Nuke Bruneau Begins!

Nuke Bruneau

This site serves as a public service announcement for south eastern Idaho. It has come to our attention that Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc is proposing to nuke Bruneau by building a nuclear power plant there. This start-up venture from Virginia plans to build a new French designed 1,600 megawatt nuclear reactor by CJ Strike Reservoir. The company is currently flooding the media with misleading information regarding the economics, energy payback, emissions, independence, safety, and need for the plant. The company wants to build the plant here, most likely sell the power out of state, take the profits back to Virginia, and leave us with the waste.

The only other plant of this design is being built in Finland. This is 2 years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget as of Dec 6, 2006. At this time there are no working reactors of this design in the world.

This is being promoted as a green/clean energy source. The only thing green about nuclear power is the glow! A 1,000 megawatt plant produces .2 tons of plutonium waste, 159 tons of reactor fuels and weapons grade plutonium and 179,000 tons of uranium mill tailing per year. This is not to mention all the CO2 produced during the construction, mining, milling, enriching, storage, and decommissioning.

Idaho currently has no active uranium mines so this is not a fuel of choice for energy independence. We would have to import the fuel from other states and most likely other countries (in 2006 the US imported 21,435 metric tones of uranium from places like Russia, Kazakhstan, and Namibia). A better solution is to generate electricity with our local fuel sources such as hydro, geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass. These renewable sources would also create many more local jobs.

The Idaho utility companies, as shown by their Integrated Resource Plans, show a deficiency in peak generation. A nuclear power plant cannot operate as a peak generation plant. Currently there is not a deficiency in base load generation. The utilities also have plans to firm up future generation demands including generation with wind and geothermal.

Want to be stuck forever with the waste? There is currently no solution to the very high level radioactive waste. Man made plutonium has a half life of 24,400 years and is radioactive for over 240,000 years. Plutonium is 20 million times more radioactive than mined uranium. One millionth of a gram if inhaled can cause lung cancer. This stuff will be stored at the proposed plant forever unless sometime in the future there is a high level waste storage or reprocessing facility built. It currently appears Yucca Mountain may never accept any high level waste and there is not even a site picked for reprocessing. Common sense would say the solution to the waste problem must be solved before any new nuclear power plants are built.

Please contact your senator and representative at the Idaho Legislature website or this website.