Nuclear power for Alaska: small-scale ideas for the future.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: ENERGY

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While the hearts and minds of some are still thinking about the largest nuclear accidents in history, some in Alaska are pushing for modest nuclear facilities to supply relatively inexpensive power to both urban and remote communities.

Marvin Yoder, former city manager for Galena, touted the benefits of small-scale nuclear power at a May meeting of the Mat-Su Small Business Alliance in Wasilla. While working in Galena, a job he held until 2006, Yoder teamed with Toshiba Corp. in an effort to build a small-scale nuclear power plant there. The project stalled at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which Yoder said has yet to review or approve any applications for small nuclear facilities.

Yoder is no longer working on behalf of Galena, but he said he stays in contact with representatives from Toshiba and actively promotes small scale nuclear power both in and outside of Alaska. He traveled to Washington D.C. and South Carolina in the past year to promote nuclear power.

Nuclear power suffers from an image problem. People link the technology to major accidents like the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, and now the failure of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. That plant experienced several partial meltdowns after its backup generators, which were cooling the reactors, failed. The failures led to several explosions and the release of radiation.

That doesn't have to happen here, Yoder said.

SMALLER MAY BE BETTER

Fukushima Daiichi was capable of developing nearly 5,000 megawatts of power, much more than Alaska uses. By contrast, the Railbelt in Southcentral --the connected grid that extends from Homer to Fairbanks and supplies most Alaskans with electricity--uses about 800 megawatts.

Alaska wouldn't need a large reactor, Yoder said. The Toshiba 4S reactor the city of Galena considered building would have generated 10 megawatts of power. Small-scale reactors range in size from 10 megawatts to 50 megawatts or 125 megawatts, though multiple reactors can be combined to generate more power.

"I think 400 megawatts of nuclear power could be purchased cheaper than building Susitna (a hydroelectric project on the Susitna River the State is studying for possible development). If you're looking at cost, it has to be in the mix. I think there needs to be a realistic evaluation," Yoder said.

NEW TECHNOLOGY MAY BE SAFER

But what would prevent a Fukushima-like accident from happening here? New technology, Yoder said.

"We're...