By Steven Friederich

The Daily World

ABERDEEN — The Grays Harbor PUD is considering pitching in $25,000 to get in on the ground floor of a new statewide effort to build five to eight small-scale nuclear power plants.

The push is being spearheaded by Energy Northwest, a collection of 22 public utility districts and five municipalities.

The group was once known world over as the Washington Public Power Supply System, its acronym pronounced as “whoops” after it defaulted on $2.25 billion worth of municipal bonds it had sold on Wall Street to help pay for nuclear power plants, including two at Satsop, that were mothballed before completion. Power customers  are still paying for the default.

PUD Commissioner Tom Casey once strongly advocated against construction of the nuclear power plants on Fuller Hill in Satsop that came grinding to a halt back in 1983. The two cooling towers remain, now just a landmark of the business park that surrounds it. He said he’s never been against nuclear power, it was the bad investments and spending waste he objected to.

Casey said he thinks the time may have come when the state’s power utilities should finally get back into the nuclear power business.

Officials from Richland-based Energy Northwest will join the PUD commissioners for a workshop to discuss the endeavor, 3:30 p.m., next Monday at the PUD’s commission chambers in the Nichols Building, located at 220 Myrtle Street in Hoquiam.

The meeting is open to the public.

Jack W. Baker, Energy Northwest’s vice president of energy and business services, is slated to make a presentation about the project during the workshop.

Baker said public power utilities across the state are still deciding whether they want to join the effort. Thus far, he said no commitments have been made but Baker is optimistic he can announce some partnerships during Energy Northwest’s Sept. 15 meeting.

The pre-fabricated, modular 45-megawatt nuclear power units have been designed by NuScale using technology developed at Oregon State University.

Each module would cost $18 million, or a bundle of modules worth 500 megawatts would cost about $2.5 billion, Baker said.

Baker said the technology is new, although the U.S. Navy has been using 50-megawatt generators for its ships since the 1960s.

“This would be the first commercial use of that technology,” Baker said, noting it would first have to go through rigorous testing before  ever being considered.

In May, Energy Northwest sent a letter to its consortium asking its members to pitch in $25,000 to research the small nuclear reactors. The company said that those who pay would have first rights to any power produced if the technology is ever utilized.

PUD General Manager Rick Lovely said he’s not taking a position on whether the utility district should invest in the technology. But Lovely said he is a fan of nuclear energy and believes the new units are safe.

Casey, who sits on Energy Northwest’s executive board, said if the project ever moves forward, the plants would likely be built in the Tri-Cities area.That’s where the 1,150 megawatt Columbia Generating Station exists, the only surviving nuclear plant of the WPPSS era. The power station provides 3 percent of the region’s power.

“But that’s not where they should go,” Casey said. “They should go on the west side (of the state). This is where the population is. But the politics won’t support it so we would have to waste a whole lot of money building more transmission lines over the mountains.”

In fact, Casey said, a perfect place for the micro nuclear plants would be the Satsop Development Park on Fuller Hill, which already has a gas-fired turbine owned by Grays Harbor Energy and has plenty of room for the small nuclear power plants. But Casey said that will never happen.

“It’s just the polls show that people in Seattle will support nuclear power — but only if it comes in from the east side,” he said.

Casey said he’s not sure if the Grays Harbor PUD will make the commitment or not.

“We want to see what the public’s reaction will be,” Casey said. “We want to have a dialogue. This is the first time we’ll be talking about this. The public really should get involved here.”

Lewis County PUD Has No Nuclear Plans

    Lewis County Public Utilities District Manager Dave Muller said that PUD commissioners have considered the option, but will likely focus on renewable energy sources due to new state and federal regulations. He said the issue could be revisited at any time. The Lewis County PUD was accepted into the Energy Northwest last month.

    “We have discussed it but to date we have not decided to participate,” Muller said this morning.