PHOENIX — The Department of Energy has issued requests for qualifications at four of the initial five nuclear properties in the agency’s Cleanup to Clean Energy program, officials here said Tuesday at the Waste Management Symposia conference.
As of this week, requests for qualifications (RFQ) have gone out at the Hanford Site in Washington state, Idaho National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site and Savannah River Site in South Carolina, said Rob Seifert, a DOE Office of Environmental Management supervisor.The sites are looking for qualified companies to develop at least 200 megawatts of carbon free power at underutilized land.
The fifth site identified by DOE in this first clean energy round, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, is a bit behind the others. It has issued a request for information and will hold an industry day later this month, Seifert said during a panel discussion.
“April is going to be a very busy month” for DOE reviewers, Seifert said. DOE wants to select projects at four of the five sites this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. DOE is handling the projects through realty agreement rather than federal acquisition regulations, he said.
The agency is not required to hold a competitive process but decided to seek proposals, said Seifert.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management is not an expert on this but is learning fast, Seifert said.
The Idaho National Laboratory, which issued a request for information in October, received 23 responses, said Lance Lacroix, an operations manager at the lab.
Greg Hatchett, a senior adviser for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said a potential solar project at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site could transport power to either Nevada or California. That’s thanks to the site’s location on the electric transmission grid, he said.
While neither the Portsmouth Site in Ohio nor the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are part of the initial DOE Cleanup to Clean Energy program, nuclear companies are exploring advanced reactor installations at each site.
That’s according to former Piketon Village administrator Jennifer Chandler and Oak Ridge Council member Chuck Hope. Kairos Power has been working on Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a reactor at Oak Ridge. Oklo Power has announced plans for advanced small reactors at Portsmouth. The Oklo reactors, which the company refers to as “powerhouses,” look like “condos,” Chandler said.
