Nuclear Power

Click here to read more about why we're considering nuclear power. 

No location has been determined. Project site location will be decided by Grant County PUD with input from a variety of stakeholders.

Definitely Billions with a B. A key part of our evaluation process is determining total project cost and key timeline milestones.

Grant PUD is exploring this nuclear power option as a way to keep rates low in the future, while meeting our customers’ growing power demands. Customers in our core group – residential, irrigation and small business – have price protections based on board policy. This policy ensures that core customers will be first in line to receive the pricing benefit of generation at our dams, while larger load customers would pay for additional power generation costs to meet their needs beyond what is produced at our dams.

Existing nuclear energy facilities are already extremely safe and the industry continuously evaluates and implements new procedures, systems and technologies to address any potential event. Through innovative designs and fuels, advanced nuclear energy technologies take safety to another level. The Xe-100 reactor utilizes TRISO fuel, which cannot overheat, making this reactor walk-away safe (meaning the plant atomically shuts down without any human action). The inherent safety of the fuel, combined with other safety features – such as the use of helium instead of water – makes this the safest nuclear energy design to date.

This is a very difficult question to definitively answer. It depends on the type of reactor, where we put it, political will, social will, funding, and several other factors. We know as a district we are looking at a need for new generation becoming reality somewhere in the 2030 range. Our hope is to meet this forecasted shortfall with new small modular nuclear reactors. We will have to work very hard to meet this goal.

Grant PUD is evaluating multiple companies to determine which partnership will be the most beneficial. Grant PUD is presently working with Energy Northwest and X-Energy on a possible project called the Tri-Energy Partnership.

It is Grant PUD’s intention to have an ownership stake in the proposed plant. With multiple promising structures, and time for continued evaluation, the partners will work together to identify the best fit for the project and the region’s future clean energy needs.

We are exploring nuclear power as a resource that would be owned and operated by Grant PUD. That would mean Grant PUD would need to hire employees to operate and support such a plant.

Yes. Estimates are between 100 and 300 full-time employees for plant operations and maintenance. However, total employment figures will depend on the size and scope of the project.

Compared to the existing fleet of nuclear energy reactors, advanced and small modular reactors will be easier, faster and more affordable to build since they can be manufactured off-site and then be assembled at the project location. These savings, combined with lower operating costs – resulting from a smaller footprint, design improvements and safety enhancements – provide significant cost reductions. 

Theoretically, nuclear energy could replace all of the output from carbon-emitting resources that are retired. From a technical standpoint, replacing these plants with advanced reactors is not only possible, but would provide additional benefits (reliability, dispatchability, and economic benefits such as jobs, economic activity, construction, and development). However, the most practical, feasible, and achievable option is a combination of new advanced nuclear generation and renewables.

The nameplate capacity for Priest and Wanapum are 950MWe and 1200MWe, respectively. The standard X-energy design is a four-pack 320 MWe power plant. However the design is scalable in 80 MWe increments, allowing additional generation capacity to be added to meet increased demand.

This table breaks down how much Uranium is produced and by what country. The same webpage goes on to provide a bunch of additional information regarding Uranium mining. https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/mining-of-uranium/world-uranium-mining-production.aspx

World Uranium Mining Production

(Updated September 2021)

• Over two-thirds of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia.
• An increasing amount of uranium, now over 50%, is produced by in situ leaching.

In 2020 Kazakhstan produced the largest share of uranium from mines (41% of world supply), followed by Australia (13%) and Canada (8%).

Production from mines (tonnes U)

* Data from the World Nuclear Association. NB: the figures in this table are liable to change as new data becomes available.