When the city began its march down the path of becoming an independent electric utility, to be named Boulder Light and Power, it did not intend to get into the business of generating electricity; only of buying as a wholesale provider and then selling retail to its customers. That being said, however, there are many of us in the community who have problems with limits, and we wonder why Boulder shouldn’t consider generating its own power, and more specifically, using advanced nuclear reactor technology in the form of molten salt reactors (MSRs) as the core of its power system.

There are many benefits to this option:

1. We could probably pick up a working interest in the Valmont Power Plant for a song as it ends its useful life for Xcel and its coal-fired generators are slated for closure. This site is extremely valuable to Boulder given the fact that it is currently a working power plant right next to our fair city, and it has working steam/electric generation equipment and tie-ins to the grid.

2. All of the money generated by sales of power would stay in Boulder and be available to pay for the upgrades to both the generation system and the grid. The current economic plan shows Boulder exporting nearly $2.8 billion over the next 20 years in power purchases from external suppliers. That money could be kept in Boulder.

3. Being in the generation business at Valmont would allow Boulder to replace the current fossil-fuel components of the Valmont plant with a single 275 MW modular molten salt reactor. This reactor would generate over 2 billion KWh of electrical energy per year on a base load basis; i.e., the power would be there when the operators need it, not when the wind is blowing or the sun shining. This is nearly twice the energy that the city uses in a typical year. I estimate that the value of the excess energy generated at the plant would amount to over $104 million per year. That would fund a lot of capital improvements.

4. A nuclear plant would generate no carbon dioxide and would require far less land than is currently being used by Valmont. Compare this to the approximately 60,000 acres of land required by wind farms for this amount of energy, or the 1,000 acres of solar panels needed. Both wind and solar would also require substantial costs for back-up generation or battery storage, which would not be needed with an MSR.

5. Molten Salt Reactors are not chimeras; they are practical designs that are currently under active development by several U.S. and Canadian companies. The first working MSR was located at the Oak Ridge National Labs. It ran for approximately five years between ~1965 and 1970. At this time, most unfortunately, the entire program was canceled by the Atomic Energy Commission in favor of the fast breeder reactor, which never achieved commercial viability. This left the U.S. with no advanced nuclear reactor program.

6. If Boulder owned and operated its own MSR, the unit would generate its annual energy contribution with approximately 66 pounds of fissionable material. The average high school freshman could carry this out to the site. At the same time, because of the nature of the reactor design it would generate less than 10 pounds of high level waste, all safely contained in the liquid salt..

It may seem like a great irony, but the solution to both our energy and environmental problems could be found in a return to what has been viewed by many as the dead-end of nuclear power. In fact, most of the general public considers nuclear power reactors as a dreadful option, and one that is inexorably linked to meltdowns, radiation releases and production of large amounts of nuclear waste. The truth of the matter is just the opposite. Modern nuclear reactors are safer than the other power-supply options, they are economically superior, provide reliable power on demand, and do not generate significant amounts of waste.

If you don’t believe me, or want to find out more, please attend a public meeting on what a Molten Salt Reactor is, and why Boulder should own one. At this meeting Mr. John Kutsch, of Terrestrial Energy, developers of what we believe the most promising design, will speak to us. This meeting will be held on April 20 at 3:30 p.m. in the Boulder Creek Room of the downtown library. Please contact Bill DeOreo, wbdeoreo@gmail.com for details.

William DeOreo lives in Boulder.