Firm discards nuke plant idea
Mid American says it will end proposal for Payette-area facility
By Larry Hurrle - Argus Observer
Monday, January 28, 2008 5:19 PM PST
PAYETTE - Plans to construct a nuclear power facility in Payette County have been terminated by MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co.
Bill Fehrman, president of MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co., said the decision to scrap the project had nothing to do with Payette County or with Idaho. Instead, he said, the project simply became too expensive for the company to continue with its proposal.
“We really liked the community and the site,” Fehrman said, “but, it is a business and it just fundamentally cost too much to do.”
MidAmerican announced plans in early December to construct a nuclear-powered, electricity-generating facility in Payette County near the Washington County line in the Little Willow area. The plant was set to be situated on 3,300 acres of private property known as the Robertson Kennels or Robertson Ranch area, south of Paddock Reservoir.
Just two weeks after its announcement, MidAmerican officials traveled to Payette County to hold a public forum to answer questions concerning the nuclear facility.
At that time, Fehrman said the company was in the very preliminary stages of “due-diligence.” He said it would be late 2008 before any decision was made.
That, however, changed in January after Fehrman said negotiations with contractors made it obvious that continuing with the project would be too expensive.
“We basically arrived at a position where the basic economics did not make sense for the customers,” Fehrman said. “We decided to discontinue due diligence at the site and shut down the project.”
Word of MidAmerican’s pullout came late last week as Idaho Legislators learned of the decision. Rep. Carlos Bilbao, R-Emmett, and Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett, both received word of the company’s decision to kill the project.
Little said bids from contractors on the project came back much higher than expected, forcing the company to scuttle future plans.
Fehrman said he believes the project is dead.
“At this point in time it is permanent,” he said. “As we went through these very long and detailed negotiations, it became fundamentally clear that the economics would not support the project. It has nothing to do with the site or with Idaho. It has to do with the contractors and such.
“It cost too much to build.”
Fehrman thanked the hundreds of residents who turned out for an information meeting last month.
At that meeting, Fehrman told about 400 people that his company would decide by fall whether to pursue permitting and construction.
Many at the meeting had concerns about the availability of water. Payette is a high desert town tied to farming and located near the confluence of the Snake and Payette rivers.
The proposed reactor would use an estimated 25,000 acre-feet of water annually, more than a quarter of the water stored in Lucky Peak Reservoir near Boise, Fehrman said.
Former Idaho Sen. James McClure was hired as a consultant by MidAmerican and its holding company, based in Des Moines, Iowa. That company owns Rocky Mountain Power, which serves eastern Idaho.
The MidAmerican proposal was the second nuclear power plant being considered in Idaho. Alternate Energy Holdings has said it wants to build a nuclear plant on 4,000 acres in Owyhee County near Bruneau, about 65 miles southeast of Boise.
The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
