“Sean O’Brien, executive director of the Energy Forward Alliance and a leader for the reactor project, said the new reactors are planned to be installed adjacent to the Columbia Generating Station on land leased from the federal government. The plant was built by the Washington Public Power Supply System in 1984. The public power agency operated the plant until it changed its name in 1998 to Energy Northwest, which now operates it and leases the land it sits on.

The sole nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest and one of only three in the western United States, the Columbia station generates about 10% of Washington’s annual power supply, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And in January, leaders at Energy Northwest announced plans to expand.

Energy Northwest agreed to a partnership with X-Energy Reactor Co., a Rockville, Maryland-based firm that manufactures nuclear reactors. Reactors are machines that house nuclear reactions that generate heat. A nuclear power plant turns heat into steam that drives turbine generators to create electricity.

Specifically, the company makes “small modular nuclear reactors,” which are many times smaller than traditional reactors. They can be transported by a semitruck and assembled in multiple configurations. (The Spokesman-Review, T. Stephans 7.1.24)

To read the entire article go to the following link:

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/jun/30/more-nuclear-power-in-the-tri-cities-northwest-ene