This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A proponent of Utah's first nuclear reactors urged the governor's Energy Development Summit on Wednesday to help make his project part of the state's future energy mix.
Nils Diaz, part of the Blue Castle nuclear plant executive team, said Gov. Gary Herbert correctly credited cheap energy for making Utah great.
"We intend to be part of that tradition to produce abundant, low-cost electricity," said Diaz, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The day-long energy development program was set to touch on such issues as how to develop the state's energy resources while keeping the air clean, tapping into oil shale, promoting renewables, energy efficiency for businesses and other timely topics.
Herbert, who has named energy as one of his top priorities, gave the opening address. And Arun Majumdar, acting undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Energy, was scheduled to give the keynote address to an audience of more nearly 1,000.
Diaz made his remarks as part of an update on the 3,000-megawatt plant, which is planned for a site near the town of Green River. He noted that the cost of licensing and preparing the site for construction will be between $100 and $200 million, with construction costs estimated at between $13 billion and $16 billion, a sum greater than the estimated cost of running the entire state government for a year.
He said construction probably would not begin until 2021.
But Diaz, who interspersed his talk with pro-nuclear television ads being run by Blue Castle, insisted the investment will be worthwhile, increasing the state's electricity production by 50 percent and pumping an estimated $2.6 billion in electricity sale revenues into the state's economy.
Christopher Thomas, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, questioned Diaz about the comparative costs of nuclear power versus other energy, such as coal and wind. Diaz responded that nuclear power will be on par with other resources in around a decade.
"If the governor wanted a balanced conversation in the state about nuclear power, this wasn't it," Thomas said after the meeting.
"This was a state-sponsored advertisement that ignored the significant threats that expensive nuclear power would pose to Utah's electricity customers as well as our communities who need water to grow and thrive."
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