The details: The first public indication that DEN was considering nuclear came from a July BusinessDen article reporting on “The Future of Aerotropolis” event the newspaper hosted. There, DEN CEO Phil Washington first disclosed his SMR ambitions, saying, “When we think about capacity and electricity and power, the development that’s going on out there, we need to be thinking about this.”
An August 6 press release formalized the plans by issuing a request for proposals for an SMR feasibility study. The estimated cost for the study is $1.25 million, and the timeframe for completion is 6–12 months.
DEN is the sixth-busiest airport in the world and the third busiest in the U.S. According to Washington, last year the airport saw 82.3 million passengers and experienced a 15 percent growth in international passenger traffic. He predicts that by 2045, DEN will be serving 120 million passengers. Today, the airport requires about 45 MWe, but its energy needs are projected to increase alongside traffic growth.
The feasibility study will explore currently available SMR technologies, the economics of the project, and regulatory concerns. It will also examine the safety concerns that may arise in the intersection between aviation and nuclear, which, as a 2017 World Institute for Nuclear Security report explored, could have a natural synergy.
Colorado nuclear: Colorado’s first and only nuclear power plant is the now shut down 330-MWe Fort St. Vrain, a gas-cooled reactor that ran from 1979 to 1989.
In April of this year, Gov. Jared Polis signed H.B. 1040 into law to redefine nuclear as a clean energy resource. This move makes nuclear projects eligible for new financing sources at the state, county, and city levels across Colorado.
The bill advocated for nuclear as the “single largest source of carbon-free electricity generation in the United States and around the world, with 94 nuclear reactors in the U.S. alone generating about 50 percent of the country’s carbon-free electricity.”
Colorado aims to hit 100 percent net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Denver has even more ambitious goals, aiming to be entirely carbon free by 2040, according to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who spoke alongside Washington in advocating for these SMR plans.
Johnston also hopes that this project will be a significant economic boon to the city, saying that it will provide an “opportunity for the airport to be a national magnet for folks who are looking to open either data centers or centers for high energy utilization data technology purposes."
