Galena to apply for permit to build nuclear power plant

it's new it's free! toshiba loves you! Welcome to Alaska!

http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/5954349p-5860085c.html

"Galena city officials have approved plans to build a 10-megawatt nuclear power plant there as a test case for providing cheap power to rural communities.

City representatives and Toshiba Corp. officials will draft an application for a license from federal regulators for the small-scale reactor near the Yukon River community. The process could take several years.

The reactor unit would be 50 to 60 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet in diameter. It would be built outside of Alaska and be encased in several tons of concrete not to be opened during its operating life, estimated at 30 years. "

Rural communities in the bush have always had a MAJOR problem with supplying cheap and readily available power.

More new nuclear plants will be built.

Society will have no choice if it wants to survive.

and they do desperatley need power out in the villages. The logistics of independent delivery of fuel and electricity is daunting to say the least. if this works it would be a very very good thing for native people.

http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/business_finance/pns_native_alaska_nukes.asp
"According to Toshiba, the 4S could cut electricity costs for the village by more than 75 percent for at least 30 years. The plant would also use water from the Yukon River to create hydrogen gas to be stored in fuel cells, one of the most talked-about forms of renewable energy in recent years.

Galena serves as a hub for a handful of smaller villages along the Yukon and its tributaries. The region is made up of thousands of square miles of largely untouched boreal forest encompassing three National Wildlife Refuges, and includes some of the world's most renowned moose habitat. Like most communities in Western Alaska, Galena is a fly-in village; there are no highways, roads, or power lines linking it to the state's larger population centers. Large diesel generators must produce all electricity locally, using fuel delivered by a river barge during the summer months when the Yukon is ice-free.

The resulting electricity costs for local residents per kilowatt-hour is nearly three times the national average, even with assistance from a state-funded subsidy program."

"The plant would also use water from the Yukon River to create hydrogen gas to be stored in fuel cells"

Can't they use the water to make the power? Or isn't there enough of a flow?

no one wants to damn up the yukon river...believe me they have tried a variety of different plans and none have proved viable...

it seems like a good deal. I've always believed that Nuclear powerplants are an intelligent method of dealing with electricity production. I grant that there are risks involved with their operation however I'm a lot more comfortable with them being built by the Japanese than I am with them built by "...lowest bidder."

The fact is that nuclear plants can be operated safely and we should continually assess soureces of powere other than fossill fuels. The French power a lot of their requirements using nuclear plants and they appear to know how to do it.

who worked on several nuke plants in the 70`s. he said the company realized after building the last 5 billion dollar plant that they should have built more smaller plants. looks like the Japanese finally have come of with the technology to build smaller plants. oh well we build war machines the rest of the world builds new technology to benefit the world.