Get Big Pivots

Legislative proposal would classify nuclear energy as “clean.” And in NW Colorado, talk about a nuclear waste respository

 

by Allen Best

Nuclear has returned to the table at the Colorado Capitol, this time with bipartisan legislative support.

HB25-1040, titled “Adding Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource,” would allow retail utilities to meet their 2050 clean energy targets by using nuclear energy. Colorado law currently excludes nuclear energy.

The statutory definition of clean energy also determines which energy projects are eligible for clean energy project financing at the county and city and county levels.

A similar bill was introduced in the 2024 legislative session by Sen. Larry Liston, a Republican from El Paso County. It failed to get out of its first committee on a party-line vote.

Liston is also a prime sponsor of this new bill and this time he is joined by another Republican, Ty Winter, who is from the Trinidad area. They are joined by Rep. Alex Valdez, a Democrat from Denver who has a history in the solar industry, and Sen. Dylan Roberts, who represents much of northwestern Colorado.

The bill says that Colorado’s peak electrical demand has been projected to double in the next five years, and Colorado’s current path to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions include only wind, solar, and battery storage. (In fact, it also includes geothermal and pumped-storage hydro).

The bill cites the large volumes of energy produced by nuclear for the large geographic footprint. It also insists that small modular nuclear reactors can replace coal power plants while maintaining the number of jobs in the communities in which the coal power plants are located. It says that designs will be available of the new small modular reactors to be ready for large-scale deployment by the 2030s.

Interviews were requested with two of the bill sponsors, but phone calls were not returned.

Nuclear bills in some form or fashion have been introduced in the Colorado Legislature for the past several years. All but one failed to move forward. Tellingly, the Colorado Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap 2.0 that was issued in February 2024 fails to mention nuclear once in the 161 pages.

In this, Colorado appears to be in a minority. The Associated Press in a survey of all 50 states found that about two-thirds saw nuclear, in one fashion or another, as helping take the place of fossil fuels.

The U.S. government under the Biden administration also considers nuclear energy a source of clean energy, and so do some states. The Department of Energy notes that nuclear energy has supplied 20% of the nation’s electricity since the 1990s. It provides power in 28 states.

Xcel Energy has two nuclear power plants in Minnesota, where it has its corporate headquarters. There, Minnesota state law deems nuclear a clean energy.

In Colorado, Xcel has also said overtly that it sees nuclear energy possibly being in play somewhere between 2030 and 2050. A task force organized by Xcel in Pueblo came to the conclusion that a nuclear power plant would best provide benefits to Pueblo County once Comanche Generating Station closes in 2030.

Xcel’s Just Transition electric resource plan describes nuclear as an advanced technology that could be viable by around 2037. Geothermal falls under the same heading. These resources are needed to maintain reliability while meeting emissions-reduction goals, Xcel said.

 

Nuclear waste repository?

Meanwhile, in northwest Colorado, a movement is underway to become home to a nuclear waste repository. The Association Governments of Northwest Colorado, an economic development group representing six counties, thinks that one of the counties could be a good place.

Matt Solomon, a former Eagle Town Council member, has been making the rounds in meeting with public officials to talk about the idea, reports KUNC.

The work of Solomon and others is being financed, at least in part, by federal grants.

The Grand Junction Sentinel reported that the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative, the program under the auspices of the six-county group, received two $75,000 grants. The most recent grant comes from Energy Communities Alliance, a nonprofit organization of local governments and nuclear communities adjacent to or affected by U.S. Department of Energy activities. It will provide development of a multi-state stakeholder map that is guided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Transition Playbook.

Among those supporters of looking into the idea of a waste repository is State Sen. Dylan Roberts. “I appreciate and understand the concerns about health and safety, but it does seem that in today’s modern world, here in 2024-2025, that there are ways to very easily secure this waste and ensure that community safety is protected,” he told KUNC.

An addendum: Matt Solomon said that the above report was misleading. The correct characterization of the story, he said, would be this: “We are exploring consent-based siting interest for an interim storage project. I have been listening and taking notes of questions and concerns so we can find answers and have fact-based discussion.”

Allen Best
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