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Experimental mini nuclear plant in the pipeline (Alaska)
A SMALL Alaskan town with a population of 700 could become the site for an experimental mini nuclear power plant. If approved, it would be the first reactor in the US since 1974. Last Wednesday the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission met with local community leaders from Galena, an Athabaskan village 900 kilometres north-west of Anchorage on the Yukon river, to discuss licensing procedures. Also present were representatives of Toshiba, which will build the plant if it is licensed, and which seems to have initiated the project.One benefit for Toshiba would be to test its new type of reactor. The device, known as a "battery" because it has no moving parts, will generate about 10 megawatts of power, roughly 1 per cent of a typical nuclear plant's capacity. The design has never been built, and anti-nuclear campaigners suspect that it is no coincidence that the company has chosen a remote, sparsely inhabited region, where it is more likely to get a licence. But locals seem to welcome the plan. They have to pay three times the US average for their diesel-generated electricity. This sounds really promising. Let's hope the enviro-loonies don't tie this up in the courts. I doubt many will get to Galena to protest in person. Posted by: phil_b 2005-02-11 |
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