Blue Castle project to be revived as SMR facility
The dormant Blue Castle nuclear power plant project in Utah has resurfaced, only this time as a proposed small modular reactor facility.
Blue Castle Holdings and Fulcrum Point Holdings—founded by the owner of Hi Tech Solutions, a company behind a separate Utah nuclear project—announced last week a joint venture to advance the Blue Castle project in Green River, Utah, the origins of which trace back almost 20 years.
Reactor details: The two developers will partner with Holtec International to deploy SMR-300 pressurized water reactors on the site. In an email to Nuclear News, a Blue Castle spokesperson said the plan is to deploy two to four SMR-300s that will generate 600 MW–1,200 MW. The project is in the preliminary phase, with additional details on a timeline and opportunities for community input to follow.
The selection of SMRs is in contrast to plans from 2014, when a memorandum of understanding between Blue Castle and Westinghouse Electric Company called for two AP1000 PWRs.
Site details: “Over the past 19 years, Blue Castle has laid the groundwork to de-risk a site for the deployment of nuclear power, creating significant value for future energy development that can serve energy demand across Utah and the surrounding region, as well as potential on-site, behind-the-meter opportunities for advanced technology applications,” Blue Castle CEO Aaron Tilton said in a statement. “We appreciate the collaborative effort with Emery County and the city of Green River to create high-value jobs and meaningful economic impact in rural Utah.”
Blue Castle expects more than 2,500 jobs to be created during construction, and “hundreds” of permanent full-time jobs at the operating plant.
In Holtec’s announcement, officials said the SMR-300's air-cooling technology is ideal in arid environments where water is scarce.
“With Holtec’s restart of Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan ongoing, and the first Holtec SMR-300s, Pioneer-1 and -2, in the NRC licensing process and early site preparation, the work by our partners to acquire sites for next-of-kind deployment in Utah is paramount to our Mountain West expansion strategy as part of [Utah’s] Operation Gigawatt,” said Holtec president Rick Springman in a statement. “Supply chain development follows reactor deployments, making the advancement of this project crucial to downstream supply chain investments in the state across the nuclear ecosystem.”
The 19-year history: While the project appeared in some news outlets as early as 2007, Nuclear News first mentioned it in February 2009, back when Transition Power Development—the former name of Blue Castle Holdings—announced it.
One of the first notable developments came later that year, when Blue Castle Holdings and Page Electrical Utility signed a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership. The plan was for Blue Castle to apply to the NRC in 2010 for a combined construction and operating license. The target date moved several times, and the proposed COL submission switched to an early site permit application. The ESP process, too, was delayed several times.
The state of Utah granted the Blue Castle project water rights in 2012. But a lengthy court battle with environmental group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) over the water rights ensued, ending in 2016 when the Utah Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Blue Castle Holdings.
All these years later, there remains local support for the nuclear construction project. In a statement, Green River city manager Edward Castro Bennett said they have worked with the Blue Castle team for nearly two decades and continue to do so. “Our community has always understood that southeast Utah has played a critical role in powering this state, and we believe Green River is well-positioned to remain a vital part of Utah’s energy future as new technologies emerge,” he said. “We appreciate the continued partnership with Blue Castle, Fulcrum Point, Emery County, and the state of Utah, and we look forward to working together as this project advances through the next stages of development."
HEAL Utah gave a statement to local news site KSL.com on the revived project, saying they were still concerned over the proposed facility with regard to water use, the Colorado River ecosystem, radioactive waste, and long-term costs to taxpayers should the project fail.
Elsewhere in Utah: The Blue Castle news is the latest effort to expand nuclear energy’s presence in Utah as part of the state’s Operation Gigawatt, which calls for doubling Utah’s energy production by 2034. Last November, plans were announced to deploy Holtec’s SMR-300s in Brigham City, and that project also has ties to Fulcrum Point-Hi Tech.
Valar Atomics, TerraPower, Anfield Energy, Nusano, and General Matter are among the nuclear companies that have projects developing across the state. This spring, Utah responded to a request for information from the Department of Energy on proposed Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses. And on May 22, the Operation Gigawatt Summit in Park City, Utah, attracted state, federal, and industry leaders and investors to discuss energy needs, including the role of nuclear.
