Independent Strategic Management Solutions joined with URS Corp. in March to help secure a $500,000 contract to look at the potential benefits of building a small modular nuclear reactor system on leased land at Hanford in Southeast Washington State. The URS team was selected by the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC) of Tri-Cities, Washington to evaluate economic impacts of the project on the region. TRIDEC was awarded a state Department of Commerce grant of $500,000 for the study and related expenses and is expected to be completed in about five months.
Congressional leaders from Washington State have encouraged DOE to locate a small modular nuclear reactor project in the Tri-City area, including U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings who noted, “This is part of a larger effort to diversify our economy in order to ensure a thriving community as Hanford cleanup winds down and is ultimately completed.”
The URS team has been asked to identify and evaluate the benefits at a local, state and national level for locating a small modular reactor at Hanford, including any significant advantages to DOE in selecting Hanford as a preferred site.
ISMSolutions President Shirley Olinger pointed out that the Hanford Site has unique economic advantages to being the first SMR siting and the Tri-Cities is a nuclear-rich community. “The modular reactor approach could be ideally suited to a community with the kind of history the Tri-Cities has had in nuclear energy research over the past 60 years,” Olinger said. “I’m looking forward to partnering with URS and TRIDEC to complete this study.”
ISMSolutions will bring its executive level experience with unique knowledge of the Hanford Site, its power needs and infrastructure in establishing a realistic pathway to a Purchase Power Agreement (PPA) for a small modular reactor in the Tri-Cities.
DOE is expected to need more power for Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the next 10 years. About the same time DOE is expected to have a small modular reactor operating somewhere in the United States, according to TRIDEC.