Big Nuclear News

This is big news, not that politic slop.

Idaho Falls is "negotiating a power purchase agreement with Aalo Atomics, a nuclear engineering company pioneering small-scale, factory-built modular reactors for clean energy production.

The agreement would give Idaho Falls Power the right to eventually purchase energy from Aalo’s Idaho Falls Project, part of the company’s mission to generate low-cost nuclear energy from reactors small enough to fit in a garage.

"Aalo’s work is inspired by Idaho National Labraotry's MARVEL reactor, envisioned by Yasir Arafat, Aalo’s Chief Technology Officer. The MARVEL reactor is currently under construction near Idaho Falls at INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility. Once completed, it will demonstrate microreactor applications at test-scale for the first time in decades.

"Under the agreement, Aalo would lease land for the life of the project, up to 80 years, at Idaho Falls Power’s new Energy Research Park, where the peaking plant is currently under construction. With design, approval and construction, Aalo’s Idaho Falls Project is not expected to come online before 2030."

We have, of course, heard similar news, with NuScale planning on building a similar small modular reactor out in the desert. That project got scrubbed after enough potential investors dropped out, making it untenable. I figured when NuScale folded their plans, the chance of local nuclear power folded with it. Apparently not so.

This project won't be built at the INL, but rather at Idaho Falls' newly-inaugurated energy research park, where constructsion started this summer on a natural gas-fed "peaking plant" meant to help the city meet its power needs during the winter when hydroelectric flows are at an ebb.

This will be a cost savings for Aalo's plant over NuScale's plan to build out in the desert, where basalt flows are much closer to the surface than in town.

And it's going to be close to town, viz:

The Google marker shows the location of the city's energy research park, upper left. Toward the lower right in the red circle is approximately where I live.

I actually grew up in a house (no longer there thanks to a pending road project) even closer to the site:

Again, Google marker is the approximate location of the energy research park; the red circle in this case my former abode.

I've long pondered why Idaho Falls, birthplace of atomic energy for "peaceful purposes" in the United States wasn't powered by nuclear, so I hope this project comes to fruition.