By Julie Johansen
The Carbon/Emery County Economic Development Group met on Tuesday, August 27 at the Emery Telcom Board Room in Orangeville to continue with coordination efforts to increase the economy in the area. The meeting brings together many local government officials, business leaders, university and education personnel and state entities. The meeting was called to order by Brock Johansen, CEO of Emery Telcom and, following the introduction of many attendees both in person and via zoom, he gave an update on the Interagency Working Group’s (IWG) previous meeting.
Laura Hanson, State Planning Coordinator of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, spoke about trying to decide which department within the state to coordinate the Utah IWG. She indicated that it has broad reach across numerous departments. She also introduced Debra McKee, the Outreach Manager with the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. It was suggested that the group coordinate with the Four Corners Rapid Response Team to encourage more action in Utah.
Kassidee Oakeson then spoke about trying to coordinate funding with all the possible organizations. She needed to know points of contact from some of the organizations involved. How to match funds when needed was also discussed. Eric Edielman with the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah reported that the application for a carbon capture grant had been submitted.
Utah State University President Elizabeth (Betsy) Cantwell began her presentation with “Why not Win?” What is it that we (Utah) didn’t do to put us into the fundable group? She also spoke about the recent announcement of an energy engineering program that was funded by the state legislature. The college is seeking accreditation of the program. President Cantwell expressed her desire that the program understand the needs in nuclear and, particularly, in Small Modular Reactors (“SMR”). John O’Neil, Vice President for Operational Strategy, expressed the additional power needs created by Artificial Intelligence. He spoke about the role SMR would play in that space.
PacifiCorp Plant Manager Laren Huntsman expressed concern about future funding of base load power. O’Neil answered that Federal and State funding need to share the costs in the baseload development and that government has a role to play.
Tyson Bomsta with the Utah Office of Energy Development then spoke about the transition of the San Rafael Research Center to the state of Utah on July 1. He also announced the board members for the Center: Moss, President Cantwell, Rockwell from U of U, Laren Huntsman, Andrew Fry and another director yet to be chosen.
Bomsta, the author of a DOE publication “Pre-application and Early Site Permits”, then highlighted his research for Utah’s Strategic Nuclear Energy Pathways. He began with five key points. 1. Nuclear Energy can expand Utah’s baseload and capacity. 2. Converting coal plants to nuclear can cut capital costs by using existing infrastructure. 3. Proper legislative action can reduce time and costs of permitting and construction. 4. Obtaining an early site permit is a critical first step. 5. Building a nuclear plant requires significant investment and long term planning – 6 to 10 years from conception to operation.
Site Considerations were also a part of his research. Things to be considered are population density and use characteristics of the site, nature of the proximity of man-related sites, and the seismology, meteorology, geology and hydrology of the site. According to the OR-SAGE standards, the Hunter Plant has zero siting issues, though Huntington and Sunnyside plants have a couple of issues.
Early Site permits have three determinants – environmental, site safety analysis and emergency plans. The cost for the permits ranges from 38.1 to 68.8 million dollars, with estimated average of 52.2 million.
The September meeting for this group will be a tour of the IPP Power Plant in Delta to look at the conversion to Hydrogen/Natural Gas and also talk to locals about the effect on the public there. This will be on Sept. 24. An open house was also announced for the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the SERDA Building in Price from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This will help the public learn and express comments about the Class VI Carbon Sequestration rule and program development.