Reed Searle, strategic relations director for Transition Power Development, called the industrial park near the intersection of Route 6 and Interstate 70 "the preferred location" last week.

On Tuesday, Transition's chief executive officer, Aaron Tilton, balked at the term "preferred" but confirmed the new industrial park is a strong candidate for reactors that could generate 3,000 megawatts of electricity.

"What is preferred about it is that there is a lot of local support," said Tilton, a Republican legislator representing Springville who added that up to three more Utah locations are being reviewed.

Transition has been working with Emery County officials on the paperwork needed to vet out a nuclear reactor site. They have been granted access to the site by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, which currently owns most of the industrial park land, for preliminary air and archeological testing.

A formal application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not due until 2010. Federal nuclear regulators received a "place holder" letter for the ''Blue Castle Generation Project'' in April that promised a reactor license application in two years.

Blue Castle Butte is on the southern edge of the Book Cliffs, east of Route 6, north of Interstate 70 and the town of Green River, and west of the take out for Desolation Canyon river trips. Emery County already has signed up Mancos Resources, the U.S. subsidiary of British Columbia-based Blue Rock Resources Ltd., to build a $100 million uranium mill at the 3,300-acre industrial park.

"It's not the only place" under consideration, said Tilton, "but one that would meet the licensing criteria - we think."

Mary Willmarth and her husband, Bill, attended a meeting in Green River last week that was hosted by the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. While not opposed to nuclear power, she thinks more needs to be done to deal with high-level reactor waste for which the United States has no disposal.

"I'm still on the fence," she said. "My problem is still waste disposal."

Greg Vetere, a lifelong Green River resident and melon farmer, also has no problem with nuclear power but does question the industrial park site. He said nuclear facilities should be built downwind of Green River city, not upwind.

"Why put something [contaminants] into the atmosphere or take a chance of it settling down into the valley," he said.

Whatever the concern, John Urgo, HEAL Utah's outreach director, says it is critical that the community get involved in the process.

"Once Emery County decides to sell and rezone land for Tilton's nuclear reactors, the process moves from the county's control into the hands of the federal government," he said. "If Green River wants a voice, now is the time to speak up."

While talk about the plant has generated lots of excitement about revitalizing economic development in Green River, any nuclear plant has a long way to go. Even under the NRC's expedited licensing process, the minimum time for developing a nuclear plant is about five years, and the cost of paying for one - estimated to be between $5 billion and $15 billion - make its future uncertain.

fahys@sltrib.com