LACEY – At the unveiling of a huge solar field in Berkeley that will power 1,600 homes, Gov. Phil Murphy spoke about renewable energy as a huge solution to New Jersey’s power needs. What was more surprising was that nuclear power came up a few times during the event as well.
As Murphy promotes green causes like electric cars, the controversial windmills off the coast were only mentioned once and very briefly. Nuclear energy was painted as a viable option for the future, and he wasn’t the only one who thought so.
Robert Shimko, business manager of IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) 400, said during the event that he’d like to see more opportunities at the two closed nuclear plants – Oyster Creek in Lacey and Salem in Lower Alloways Creek Township.
After the event, when the governor took time to speak to reporters, he answered questions from the Southern Ocean Times about where nuclear energy fits into the state’s plan for the future.
“One of the huge benefits of nuclear power is that it creates a great amount of energy with no carbon footprint,” he said.
While he didn’t offer any specific opinions about the future of Oyster Creek, he said he was open-minded about modular nuclear reactors.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these advanced small modular reactors could produce between tens to hundreds of megawatts. They are smaller, less expensive, and able to be in places a large reactor wouldn’t be allowed. They are “likely” to be deployed at the end of the 2020s or in the 2030s.
The fact that they haven’t been put into practice yet is something that makes the governor hesitate. There’s a lot of science and planning behind these reactors, but since they haven’t been in America yet, he doesn’t want to throw full support into it. He has an open mind about them, though. He could see them being part of answering the energy needs of the state alongside solar, hydrogen and offshore wind.
Oyster Creek is in the process of decommissioning with its owner, Holtec International.
After this event, this newspaper reached out to Lacey Business Administrator Veronica Laureigh. She said that Holtec has built those modular reactors in other countries. It would have to go through the regulatory process for approval in order to be possible here.
“Oyster Creek is an ideal site” for a smaller reactor, she said, noting that there was enough land available to build a second plant. Such a plan was in place in the 1970s, but was shelved when the country’s opinion of nuclear power went downhill.
This isn’t to say nuclear power plants are entirely a thing of the past. Two large nuclear reactors were recently built in Georgia as part of a network that already contained two other plants. However, these cost more than twice what it was expected for a number of reasons, such as increased regulations and the lack of a steady supply chain for reactors since they are not being built in the same frequency as decades ago.
