Nebraska looks to build a new power plant

As NPPD progresses on its site-selection process, it is examining each city’s existing transmission infrastructure, population, workforce, viable water sources, and surrounding environment. The open houses serve to educate the public on the opportunities a nuclear power plant can bring to a community and are also a valuable barometer of the local opinion on the prospect of hosting a nuclear facility.

More details: In 2023, the Nebraska State Legislature passed L.B. 1014, which allocated $1 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act for a feasibility study to assess siting options for new advanced reactors throughout the state. As the only qualified recipient in Nebraska, the state-owned NPPD applied and was approved for the funding shortly after.

While NPPD hasn’t laid out detailed information for its planned reactor, Dan Buman, special assistant to the site vice president at the Cooper nuclear power plant, said at the Valentine open house that the utility was looking at projects up to 300 MWe.

In a 2023 blog post on the siting study, NPPD generation research senior program manager Roman Estrada said, “This study will not result in the immediate construction of an advanced small modular reactor, but it will give us a great look at potential areas in the state where this technology could be sited.”

The 16 cities that NPPD is considering for siting in the first phase of this study are Beatrice, Brownville, Fremont, Grand Island, Hallam, Hastings, Holdrege, Kearney, Lexington, Nebraska City, Norfolk, Plattsmouth, Rushville, Sutherland, Valentine, and Wauneta.

The utility hopes to enter phase two of the study—narrowing the list down to 2 to 4potential sites—by the end of the year.

Valentine response: According to reporting from News Channel Nebraska, residents of the north-central Nebraska town have mixed reactions to the prospect of nuclear power coming to Valentine. Concerns included the potential contamination of the Ogallala aquifer and the disturbance of the Sandhills of Nebraska, which the city describes as “the largest tract of stabilized sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere,” covering 19,000 square miles.

Other residents were excited for the possibility of economic development, especially as NPPD representatives explained the diversity of job opportunities a nuclear power plant brings to a city.

Past and present: Nebraska has been home to three commercial power reactors, one of which is still operational. The 75-MWe single-unit Hallam nuclear power plant, containing a sodium-cooled graphite-moderated reactor, closed in 1964. The 502-MWe Fort Calhoun plant, a single-unit PWR, closed in 2016.

Today, Nebraska’s one remaining operating plant is the Cooper nuclear power plant, a single-unit 810-MWe BWR that entered commercial operation in 1974. It is owned by NPPD, which describes it as the “largest single-unit electrical generator in the state.”

NPPD’s plan to expand its nuclear fleet is one of the key methods by which the utility hopes to meet its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Today, Cooper provides 17 percent of the in-state electricity generation in Nebraska and is second in clean-energy generation only to wind.