In a major step for domestic energy security, the U.S. Department of Energy offered a conditional commitment for a $2 billion loan guarantee to facilitate financing of AREVA’s Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility under development near Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Read the news of the announcement here.
We would like to highlight some of the comments made by the leaders of Idaho in the wake of this important announcement for the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility which is planned for their communities.
“DOE’s decision is great news for AREVA and Idaho,” said Governor Otter. “The loan guarantee confirms that Idaho continues to lead the nuclear renaissance in America. The decision also paves the way for new careers and economic recovery across the state.”
– Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter (link)
”This loan guarantee from the Department of Energy is a crucial step in meeting the demand for a reliable, U.S.-based source of enriched uranium to fuel our nuclear power plants,” said Risch, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “It is also a great benefit to our local communities and the state for the positive economic impact the new construction and permanent operation jobs that will come about from this facility.”
– Idaho Senator Jim Risch (link)
“Developing new U.S.-based sources of uranium enrichment is critical to the country being able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, achieving energy independence, having a reliable supply for domestic power reactors and protecting our national security,” said Crapo. “If we are going to have a chance at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a robust expansion of nuclear power is the only way to do it without tanking the economy. The Eagle Rock plant will be one of Idaho’s contributions to this worthy and attainable goal.”
– Idaho Senator Mike Crapo
“I want to congratulate AREVA and the people of Eastern Idaho who have worked so hard to secure this loan guarantee and bring the Eagle Rock facility to our state,” said Simpson, a member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee which funds the Department of Energy and the Loan Guarantee program. “Nuclear energy must play a strong role in our nation’s energy future and the Eagle Rock facility’s contribution to that future will be enormous.”
– Idaho Congressmen Mike Simpson
“This project will have impact far beyond Idaho Falls,” said Minnick. “Alternative energy solutions such as nuclear power and woody biomass are a crucial part of our work toward an economic recovery. This project will help Idaho businesses and universities do just that, and will help meet our shared goal of Idaho becoming a national leader in the new energy future.”
– Idaho Congressmen Walt Minnick
We’d like to bring your attention to this article from KIDK.com (the local Idaho Falls television station), which talks about how Idaho Falls is weathering the current economic storm. The article, which is mostly about businesses in the Idaho Falls region, points out at the very end that AREVA’s planned Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility is bringing new hope to the region:
The biggest change our area will see will be the arrival of Areva and their multi-billion dollar uranium enrichment facility.
Not only will the company hire locals or bring in new jobs that will stimulate our local economy, a very hurting construction industry will be major benefactors of the company. [. . .]
Areva is likely to bring between 800 and 1,000 construction jobs alone. And once the facility is running, more than 300 jobs will be created.
That’s the kind of thing that can really help a local economy… because the money paid to the people who work those 800-1,000 construction jobs, and the 300+ permanent jobs, will keep circulating around the Idaho Falls region as the employees patronize local businesses and services. Idaho Falls is just one community that’s finding new vitality in the green jobs of the nuclear renaissance.
The nuclear energy industry has not always been the most popular kid on the block—thanks in part to some gross misinformation that gets passed around. However, a recent piece by Corey Taule in the Idaho Falls Post Register factually addressed some inaccurate claims made by the Snake River Alliance about AREVA’s planned Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility. Taule argues that Alliance claims like “Uranium Enrichment—It’s About the Bomb!” and “Tell Your Neighbors—Uranium Enrichment is ‘an open road to a nuclear weapon,” will not be persuasive because, as Taule points out, “Eastern Idaho is pro-nuclear and educated about the issue.”
He points out that “America’s nuclear plants need enriched uranium to produce power. The concentration of U-235, the fissionable isotope in uranium, need to be increased from .07 percent to between 3 percent and 5 percent for use as a nuclear fuel. That’s where AREVA’s centrifuge process comes in,” and that Eagle Rock will not have the capacity to generate “weapons-grade fuel [that] generally comes in at about 85 percent.”
Answering the Alliance’s claims about depleted uranium disposal, he refers to the fact that “AREVA has said repeatedly it will not store depleted uranium on site. We live here. This is our backyard…So where will it go? Depleted uranium has commercial applications as tank armor and counterweights. As to the leftover, federal law requires the government accept depleted uranium with no commercial value.”
The Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility will have an estimated multi-billon dollar economic impact and create hundreds of jobs. It also will meet 25 percent of the nation’s critical enrichment needs, especially considering “that if the U.S. is serious about reducing carbon emissions, nuclear must become a greater part of the nation’s power portfolio. That means building more nuclear power plants. Some estimate that even after AREVA’s Eagle Rock facility comes online, America will still import 25 percent of its enriched uranium from Russia.”
The whole piece from Sunday October 25, “Watching the Watchdog,” is worth a read.
For more information about the planned Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, the potential economic impact, U.S. enrichment needs, and AREVA’s commitments to sustainable development, safety and the environment, check here.
Idaho Falls, Idaho has been busy with AREVA activities for quite some time, and today was no exception as three AREVA Inc. subsidiaries collected into new office spaces. AREVA Federal Services, CANBERRA Inc., and AREVA Enrichment Services have taken their activities to the McNeil Building at Taylor Crossing.
AREVA Federal Services and CANBERRA Inc. have been a part of the Idaho Falls community for almost a decade. Their work supports the Idaho National Laboratory, operated by the Department of Energy, through waste characterization, packaging, and transportation. AREVA Federal Services operates as the direct point of contact for AREVA’s federal business, and CANBERRA leads the field in nuclear measurement.
AREVA Enrichment Services recently made Idaho Falls its home to continue with its advancement for plans to build and operate a state of the art centrifuge enrichment facility 18 miles west of the city.
As the picture for Idaho Falls continues to look bright, AREVA Federal Service’s Ed Gulbransen shared that “we enjoy the work we are performing for the site and plan to have a presence here for a very long time.” AREVA Enrichment Services Vice-President Bob Poyser echoed these thoughts as “We are making steady progress in the engineering and licensing of the enrichment facility and look forward to breaking ground for construction as planned in 2011.”
AREVA’s proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility under development near Idaho Falls, Idaho has been chosen as one of Site Selection magazine’s Top Projects of 2008. The company selected the site, about 18 miles west of Idaho Falls in May 2008. In December, AREVA submitted a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the facility valued at over $2 billion. The project is expected to bring approximately 1,000 jobs during the construction phase and some 300 permanent jobs during operations.
Site Selection said the criteria were determined by “level of capital investment, degree of high-value jobs, creativity in negotiations and incentives, regional economic impact, competition for the project and speed to market.”
AREVA put forth its plan to establish this facility in the U.S. in May 2007 before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the race was on. From an initial 200 sites the company’s team, led by Sam Shakir, general manager, strategic enrichment, used its “multi-attribute utility analysis” matrix of 39 technical, environmental, operational, and economic criteria to winnow the number of finalists to 10 sites in six states, including New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington.*
Central to the deal were Grow Idaho Falls Inc., the Eastern Idaho Economic Development Partnership, the Regional Development Alliance and the Idaho Dept. of Commerce, as well as the indirect influence of the Idaho National Laboratory. …
“One thing we saw was a complete alignment between state and local government and their federal representatives here in Washington,” Shakir told Site Selection.
*Shakir is now president of AREVA Enrichment Services, the subsidiary devoted to development of the facility.
View of Earth from the Moon (NASA)
by Laura Clise
Earth Day made its debut on April 22, 1970, in response to the call by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson for a nationwide protest to protect the environment. What began as a statement of environmental activism, and gave birth to the U.S. EPA, is now increasingly linked to addressing economic crisis, international development and foreign policy. Environmental concerns have become increasingly a part of mainstream debate as governments and local communities around the world weigh in on topics including climate change policy, water accessibility, and deforestation. In other words, Earth Day and environmental awareness have become a lot broader than saving whales, planting trees, and recycling used cans.
The current call for a global transition to a low carbon economy presents both economic opportunities for investment in new technologies and simultaneously necessitates that countries like the U.S. make significant progress on the policy front.
The recent Ceres Conference: Achieving a Sustainable Global Economy brought together business leaders, investors, environmental and public interest organizations to examine critical domestic and international sustainability issues. A breakout discussion on, “the water energy conflict,” focused on the simple relationship between the two in a carbon-constrained world: Power uses water and water uses power. Both water and power are closely linked to climate change and have implications beyond the environmental realm.
As a leader and advocate for CO2-free power generation, AREVA is engaged in a multi-stakeholder dialogue regarding climate change, energy efficiency, and environmental impact and offers technological solutions that support the global transition to a low carbon, resource-constrained economy. Sustainable development is an integral part of AREVA’s global industrial strategy, reflected in its new enrichment facility in Idaho Falls, which will use 50 times less electricity than the previous technology and will not use water for its cooling process as well as the AREVA U.S. EPR reactor, which will save one million tons of CO2 annually compared to a coal plant.
Given the concurrent economic, energy, and environmental challenges, every day must be Earth Day. Individuals, communities, companies, organizations, and governments need to continue to integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into long-term growth strategies. If we relegate advocacy for environmental citizenship to a single day of awareness and activism, the consequences will negatively impact the economy, energy security, and geopolitical relations, threatening the sustainability of development around the world.
Mayor's Youth Advisory Council
We previously blogged about inviting 20 Idaho students who were members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council for a week long visit to France to AREVA headquarters and to tour our Georges Besse II uranium enrichment facility, which is similar to the facility we’re planning at Eagle Rock near Idaho Falls.
We wanted the students to have a first hand experience of what is being planned for their community and to get their feedback. The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council just releaed their own report from the trip and as student Ericka Gianotto wrote:
“We’re going to be able to go back into our schools and to the community and explain what’s coming and here’s what’s not, because it’s important for the students of our schools to realize we’re not going to be having nuclear reactors, we’re not going to have water towers, and here’s what it does and what it’s going to look like and what it plays a major role in the nuclear fuel cycle.”
Here are some more excerpts from their report:
This facility is nearly identical to the proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, with a few minor differences. For example, the Eagle Rock facility will have slightly lower air emissions, slightly lower water consumption and include a sloped roof while the Georges Besse II facility has a flat roof. These minor differences, however, will make the Eagle Rock facility an even more environmentally friendly plant….
Previous nuclear technologies did require large amounts of water. The centrifuge technology employed in this facilit y will not. The expected annual water usage of the Eagle Rock facility is comparable to the amount of water normally required to irrigate a golf course for a year, and is around one fiftieth that of the previously used enrichment technology….
The United States has a continually growing need for energy, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet this need. Some analysts are predict ing that by 2020, the United States will be unable to produce enough enriched uranium to meet its own demand for nuclear fuel. The Eagle Rock facility will be used to supply 25% of the needed enriched
uranium, and thus will decrease the amount of uranium that has to be imported, resulting in a more energy independent United States…
We would like to express the feeling of pride we have in our community, and how honored we are that all of the sites Areva was considering for this facility, they chose Idaho Falls.We urge anyone with questions about this plant and anything related to it to feel free to ask any member of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. We are excited about both the direct and indirect positive impacts this project will have on our community and hope that you share our enthusiasm and support for this project.
You can see the whole report here...
Mayor's Youth Advisory Council of Idaho Falls (click to enlarge)
The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council of Idaho Falls had a full day Monday of scientific and cultural experiences near Avignon, France. The students toured and learned about the advanced technology under construction at AREVA’s George Besse II enrichment facility. This facility uses the same centrifuge technology that AREVA plans to bring to Idaho Falls at the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility.
Following the facility tour, local high school students and the mayor of local Pierrelatte welcomed the Advisory Council and Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman as an opportunity for cultural exchange and their shared investment in the future of nuclear energy. Both acknowledged the importance of the students understanding enrichment technology and its positive impact on their community.
Mayor Yves Le Bellec of Pierrelatte said: “it was a good day for the city, AREVA, and for the future of the project with the presence of the young adults.” Mayor Fuhriman also commented how much the students had taken away from the day’s events and how much they learned about the science of enrichment. “As a result, I am even more confident in AREVA’s Eagle Rock facility coming to our community,” Fuhriman said.
Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat reprints an excellent editorial from Sunday’s Idaho Falls Post Register. The long and short of it is that it’s silly to pit one company against another when we’re talking about loan guarantees for future enrichment plants in the US… we need as many as we can get:
There are several idiotic debates under way at the moment — but pitting a uranium-processing plant in Idaho Falls against another proposed in Ohio has to top the list.
Watching the jockeying for $2 billion in federal loan guarantees makes for intriguing political theater. But it’s silly. The nation really needs both. . . .
Having three companies involved denies any one of them a chokehold on domestic fuel supply. It also provides a geographically dispersed network. . . .
This is no time for winner-takes-all politics. If Congress expands the loan-guarantee program, it does not mean more federal spending. It merely allows these companies to get financing more easily and cheaply.
We’d also like to add that these loan guarantees, in addition to costing the taxpayer nothing, would create jobs in the present for the folks who build the enrichment plants and in the long term, in steady, stable, community-supporting jobs in a high-tech and green industry.
