TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Nuclear power could be on the horizon for Tucson Electric Power as it teams up with two other major Arizona utilities to explore that possibility.
The furthest they’ve gone so far is to ask the federal government for a grant and even that is enough for some environmental watchdogs to call it a waste of resources.
Opponents want them to put the money into renewables with battery storage, which TEP is already doing.
The Palo Verde station west of Phoenix, one of the nation’s largest producers, supplies Arizona utilities APS and SRP with electricity from nuclear power.
TEP has joined those two in applying for a federal grant to explore new nuclear generation in Arizona.
“Nuclear offers around-the-clock power, it doesn’t produce any carbon emissions, and it’s also reliable so those are some of the reasons why it’s something we’re exploring,” said TEP spokesperson Joseph Barrios.
“The nuclear energy industry has been on its deathbed because it’s the most expensive form of new energy generation to deploy,” said Tayler McKinnon, southwest director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Center for Biological Diversity claims the amount of time spent permitting and building nuclear makes it prohibitive and said that utilities should focus on renewables with storage, which is something TEP has already been doing with facilities like its Wilmot I on the southeast side with 30 megawatts of storage alone and paired with solar.
“Frankly, I’m surprised to see utilities wasting what is presumably ratepayer money researching cost-prohibitive nuclear energy when renewable energy with storage is available now,” McKinnon said.
“We have a number of those that are either under construction or scheduled to come online in the next few years so this certainly isn’t the only option we’re exploring it’s again part of a mix of resources that we’re looking at,” Barrios said.
The Department of Energy has about $900 million up for grabs and could consider small modular reactors generating about 300 megawatts, compared to one of the reactors at Palo Verde that can generate 1,400. But the facility will not be online until after 2040.
“There’s been very little new nuclear energy deployed in the United States and the reason for that is market forces. It’s simply not cost competitive,” McKinnon said.
“TEP has not made a decision to invest in new nuclear. At this point we’re really exploring the options available to us, and that would include looking at potential sites for a new resource,” Barrios said.
The small modular reactor program is still considered in the research and development phase.
The grant is expected to cover three years of site selection and possibly the early site permit application.
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