The head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy hopes the agency can select its first clean power project at the Idaho National Laboratory within a year.
“A year from today” is the target, Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Idaho lab’s Cleanup to Clean Energy information session Wednesday. “It’s a stretch goal but it’s entirely possible.” The press conference was webcast.
It would appear an ambitious timetable given that the DOE only published its request for information a week earlier for carbon-free power projects at Idaho National Laboratory. Huff hopes to see some “big bold” ideas out of the request for information, which seeks replies by Dec. 15.
A draft request for proposals will emerge from the information request, and a panel of experts will select the first project at the Idaho National Laboratory, Huff said.
The speed at which a 200-megawatt carbon-free power project could win approval would hinge on the length of regulatory reviews, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, which could run “a couple of years” depending on the project, Huff said.
Restrictions limit some tracts at Idaho National Laboratory to projects that advance the DOE complex’s nuclear mission, while others would be open to an array of energy projects from wind and solar to carbon capture and battery storage, Huff said.
In Idaho, DOE would likely negotiate any power purchase contract directly with Idaho Power, Huff said. Idaho Power is a regulated electric power utility owned by Idacorp.
The Idaho National Laboratory spans about 890 square miles and has 62 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines and 10 electric substations, according to information distributed Wednesday.
The effort to tap unused buffer land at DOE nuclear cleanup sites for carbon-free electric power generation was rolled out in July by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
