One day after the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine, one of the only places in the world where nuclear energy is being discussed as a part of the future of the world’s energy portfolio is Hobbs.
A two-day nuclear energy conference kicked off Wednesday at the Lea County Event Center where nuclear industry representatives from around the world and media from as far away as Japan sat down to separate fact from fiction and discuss making nuclear energy a viable and essential piece of the world’s energy portfolio.
The keynote speaker for the first day of the event was former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, who has been called by many in the industry as the godfather of the new nuclear renaissance in the United States.
Domenici’s remarks echoed the theme of the first day’s discussion, as he thanked the Lea and Eddy county areas for being open to the nuclear industry with WIPP, Urenco USA, International Isotopes and Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas.
“We are very proud to be part of what we think is unique,” Domenici said. “Unique because the people of this area know so much about nuclear power and nuclear waste, they are noticeably different than other parts of the nation. We don’t run and hide when we hear the words nuclear or radioactive. We sit down to learn about the facts and myths and make sure they are completely understood. It has been a great lesson in seeing how much the leading citizens of this area have done for America.”
Domenici talked at length about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and how the site is one of only three in the world actively disposing of nuclear byproduct and is a leader in showing the nation how it’s done.
“We ought to, as a nation, commit to do the research that will bridge the gap between where we are in the WIPP development and high-level waste,” Domenici said. “In the next year must we not only find the way to get some financing for some nuclear power plants, but a commitment must be made by the U.S. to dispose of the waste spread out across our country. When that cycle is closed there will be one thing that will stand out — we can say it happened in our area.”
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., opened the talks Wednesday, also discussing the problems with nuclear energy being a part of the nation’s future.
“Nuclear does not have technological problems in this country. Nuclear has political problems in this country,” Pearce said. “The United States developed the nuclear power field and then regulated it out of existence. We have built no new nuclear power plants in 30 years.”
Pearce also pointed to the area as a leader in the future of nuclear, which he said is essential to the nation’s energy independence. Recent scares caused by the Fukushima disaster in Japan are an incident to build from, not run from, Pearce said.
“When there were earthquakes in San Francisco we didn’t leave, we began to rebuild and rebuild better. That is what needs to happen in the wake of Japan,” he said. “We should be analyzing exactly what went on instead of saying no to all nuclear.”
“The reason we need nuclear energy is because of a concept called ‘power density,’” Pearce added. “Near Houston there is talk of a 19-acre nuclear plant that would power the whole town. With wind it would be an area the size of all of Rhode Island, and for ethanol it would take all of West Virginia. Power is going to be the key to everything.”
Nuclear power began in New Mexico with the dropping of the first test atomic bomb near Alamogordo and some of the richest uranium mines in the nation are in New Mexico. Now with solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear coming to the state along with the current oil and gas operations, New Mexico is poised to be the center of the nation’s energy industry, said New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela.
“What you are doing here naming it the EnergyPlex is right on,” he said. “On behalf of Gov. Martinez, I think we are going to steal some of those ideas.”
Barela went on to discuss the need for the state to get its financial affairs in order and create more business-friendly regulatory and tax environments.
“If we don’t focus on this energy and its potential, I can assure you others will,” he said. “New Mexico has a long history of being a leader in energy production. If we play our cards right, New Mexico can be the center of energy production in the country. New Mexico is uniquely positioned to assume that role in this country. We have the national resources and the know-how.”
In the first panel discussion of the day, the focus was on uranium mining, which New Mexico had been a leader in but has since fallen behind. The nation as a whole only mines 7 percent of the uranium needed for the country’s current 104 nuclear power plants, said Peter Scholle, state geologist with New Mexico Tech.
“We are far more dependent on foreign uranium than oil,” he said.
The world mines only 50,000 tons of uranium annually, but the world’s 443 nuclear plants use 60,000 tons annually and demand is only expected to increase as 33 new nuclear plants are in construction, 92 are planned and as many as 222 are proposed — 30 percent of those in China alone.
“Nuclear is already a major global energy supplier and it can only get bigger,” Scholle said.
The reason is that nuclear is the only low-carbon, base-load option, said Jon Indal, an Albuquerque-based attorney who specializes in working with the nuclear industry.
“If you have climate concerns, there is no reason you shouldn’t have nuclear as part of the mix,” Scholle said.
Nuclear currently supplies only 14 percent of the world’s energy and 20 percent of the nation’s energy. The country is fifth in uranium reserves, but overreaching regulations have slowed mining and processing of uranium, Scholle said.
“The U.S. has banned reprocessing since the Carter Administration,” Scholle said.
The world is not in a shortage of uranium for nuclear power with more than 100 years of known supply available, but the country could have trouble meeting its uranium needs if steps are not taken, Indal said.
Scholle said there is $10.7 billion worth of uranium in New Mexico at current prices and as much as $39 billion worth at $100 a pound, which the price may eventually reach.
Indal said there were 30 uranium mills in the country three decades ago, but only one now. However, a new mill has been licensed in Colorado and mines may be reopening in New Mexico in the next two years.
“I think the future of uranium mining in the Grants area is very positive,” Indal said. “We are within a year of seeing production in the Church Rock zone, if nothing goes wrong.”
The future of nuclear energy was the focus of the second day of talks at the 2011 Uranium Fuel Cycle Conference in Hobbs.
New Mexico and the southeast portion play a particular role in that future, setting the tone for successful nuclear-related projects and becoming a hotbed of activity.
Dr. Dan Fine, research associate for New Mexico Tech and the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, pointed to Lea County and the surrounding area as one the premiere energy corridors in the world.
“The geography here is an energy corridor. A primary one in the U.S.,” he said. “It is a phenomenon not visible and not known except in a few places in the world. The corridor here has almost everything in a cycle that follows uranium from mining to waste, except there is no generator here yet. This is the last piece to complete this crowned jewel of energy corridors.”
That piece could be fulfilled in the coming years as discussion for a portion of the day focused on new technology and modular nuclear reactors — smaller nuclear reactors that are less expensive, safer and require less space than traditional nuclear power plants.
John Kelly, deputy assistant secretary for Nuclear Reactor Technologies at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, discussed the future of modular reactors, citing New Mexico as a perfect place to begin using them.
“The smaller units don’t require the cooling systems that bigger plants do,” he said. “There is less water usage and they can be looked at in places like New Mexico.”
Fine told the News-Sun he has been in talks with a power company that is interested in locating such a modular power plant in the EnergyPlex area that would provide power to portions of Texas.
Unlike traditional reactors, the modular units require only about 15 acres of space, produce less power — about 250 megawatts per unit — and are more completely contained, reducing the threat of pipe breaks that could lead to radiation leakage, Kelly said.
“All the key components are inside the primary vessel,” Kelly said. “The large pipe breaks of the current generation of reactors is eliminated. They can use passive cooling systems and can withstand long-term loss of power.”
The importance of this technology was reinforced by the first topic of the days discussion where Kelly discussed what happened at the Fukushima reactor in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami.
The plant released hydrogen gas and radiation because it overheated when the earthquake triggered a reactor shutdown and the following tsunami knocked out back-up systems that kept the Number 3 reactor unit from overheating.
The modular reactors are essential to the future of the nation’s energy security because over the next 30 years 120 gigawatts of power will go off-line as coal-fired plants come to the end of their life spans.
“We see nuclear power as remaining one of the key energy strategies in the U.S. energy portfolio,” Kelly said. “Nuclear must be a part of the energy portfolio.
“We want to reestablish the U.S. as a leader in the nuclear field.”
Kevin Butterfield, director of business development for Babcock and Wilcox Nuclear Energy, also spoke about the modular reactors. Butterfield said his company hopes to have the first modular reactor permitted and working by 2020. Permitting is the time-consuming process of getting the modular facilities working, Butterfield said, while construction would only take three years.
The plan is to develop modular plants in such a way that the central core could be manufactured in a facility, which could produce dozens or hundreds of them in a year to meet world energy demands, he said.
Butterfield said the facility his company is planning would have a life span of 40 years and could be expanded to easily add 250 megawatt increments as power demands increase.
Current modular reactor technology is similar to traditional light water reactors, but new technology for even smaller modular reactors is in the works and could be seen in 15-20 years, he said.
Butterfield also talked about the strong likelihood that New Mexico could be one of the first sites for such reactors.
“Over the last couple of days it is very obvious to me that New Mexico is a very willing community,” he said. “There are a lot of available sites in the area. We are the vendor that works with utilities. My advice to you is begin the dialogue with the utilities. New Mexico has a can-do attitude. There is no reason why it can’t happen here.”
The last piece of the future nuclear renaissance is the needed work force. The last panel of the two-day convention discussed the training and work force needed for future nuclear expansion world wide.
Robert Rhodes, vice president of Training and Outreach for New Mexico Junior College, said the nation will need 120,000 workers trained in nuclear energy in the next 20 years. Of those 100,000 will not be engineers.
Rhodes discussed the training opportunities with NMJC’s nuclear training program, the only one of its kind in the country, while other presenters discussed the kinds of jobs that will be needed and the skill sets, such as math, science and writing skills that will be needed by these employees.
Fine, who closed the comments for the day, said the work force training is also key to luring other nuclear projects to the area and state.
“The industry is going to be very selective about a community and the risk of a community,” he said.
Fine also said the plan is to bring in the two leading Republican candidates for president to next year’s conference and discuss with them energy policy for the nation.
“Lea County and the corridor can tell them what they think an energy policy should be,” he said. “This is going to be an exciting exchange a year from today.”
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