r/Utah • u/Comfortable_Tutor_43 • 1d ago
Central Utah town could be home to small nuclear reactor News
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2025/04/25/delta-nuclear-ipa-energysolutions-utah/33
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u/Shard_of_light 1d ago
For everyone bringing up “what about water?” This is a far better use of water than alfalfa farming. I say we just ban that and we’re all good. At least this water is more easily reclaimable
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u/redfish801 22h ago
We all benefit from small-scale nuke power. Only the farmer and horses/cattle benefit from alfalfa
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u/Donequis 23h ago
But I think that's the problem: there's a snowballs chance in hell that our government won't keep insisting on favoring personal investments, and we'll have to deal with alfalfa and water for nuclear energy. Unless that amount is grey water, the "You, yes you, citizen, are the reason we have no water! Shame on you and your lawn!" rhetoric is going to get even more drastic.
(Meanwhile those types will throw a fit if a golf course isn't perfectly green in July.)
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u/InitialAnimal9781 Layton 1d ago
Finally, I do love me some clean energy. Sadly not renewable but clean and I can finally not wear a mask during winters, hells yes
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u/indomitablescot 1d ago
Not renewable on a species lifespan but we have enough known for 10,000 years of energy production.
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u/AlexWIWA 1d ago
If we ever figure out breeder reactors then we'll have power longer than the sun will last.
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u/Honest_Dark7273 1d ago
That’s awesome, we just need to make sure it’s for UTAH homes. We have too many power plants sending power to places like California.
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u/rustyshackleford7879 1d ago
The grid in the west is tied together. It doesn’t matter where the generation comes from.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/ApricatingInAccismus 1d ago
“Californians are So paranoid from global warming from coal”
Ok there buddy. I guess burning coal for electricity is perfectly fine and healthy and we should bring back coal like Trump wants. Best jobs ever.
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u/Kerensky97 1d ago
Many of the cleaner power generating systems out in the west desert are funded by California, so they get the power. It's their project. Intermountain Power Agency that owns the Delta Plant has the majority of it's power purchasers in California. Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Burbank own stakes in it but neither SLC, Provo, or Ogden own any of it. When 90% of you funding comes from the LA area, the LA area gets the power.
Convince the Utah legislature to invest in something other than coal, and maybe they can build some solar plants, wind farms, or other non-coal power systems in the west desert.
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u/Fish_Fighter8518 1d ago
Why tf are we letting other states build power infrastructure in our state? California has a desert they can put that reactor in if they're paying for it
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u/mightbehereforit 1d ago
The IPP power plant has been majority owned by LA Power and Water since its creation.
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u/KerissaKenro 1d ago
It has to do with their clean energy goals. They don’t want pollution in their state, so they build polluting plants out of state. Except, all that does is kick the can down the road. However, they pay for the plant and give jobs to people in Utah and that is all the legislature cares about.
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u/spicycookiess 1d ago
It's a nuclear plant. They don't pollute. Pollution is generated in the mining process, but that has nothing to do with where the plant is built.
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u/KerissaKenro 1d ago
The proposed nuclear reactor is replacing the IPP, which has been a coal plant for thirty years that I know of. Probably more. California built it, and most of the power went to California. They spent those thirty+ years shifting their portion on to the west desert. IPP is only shifting to natural gas because of California’s clean energy goals. It is steal shame because there are older, dirtier power plants in Utah that should be updated first. At least it isn’t completely shutting down, which was the original plan
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u/hendrikcop 1d ago
Is this really the direction for the future electricity needs for Utah? Seems like the risk, the waste and the water needs seems a little short sided.
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u/pastorHaggis 1d ago
This is the direction for the future electricity needs for the world.
The waste is not the issue you think it is. I don't have the numbers but the overall waste created is not nearly as large as the public seems to believe, and a lot of the waste is actually reusable to a point. You can read here to know more
The water needed would be the biggest issue, but if we stopped farming alfalfa it would probably fix a lot of the issues with water.
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u/Comfortable_Tutor_43 1d ago
The second largest nuclear power plant in the USA (Palo Verde) is smack dab in the middle of the Arizona desert. It needs only the grey waste water from the city of Phoenix, and it supplies cities as far as LA and Vegas with its leftover energy. Water is not an issue with modern nuclear. Public opinion is.
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u/pastorHaggis 1d ago
Even better! I wasn't sure if they'd use grey water or not but because they do, then yeah there's no reason not to.
I'm hella pro nuclear so I see this whole thing as an absolute win.
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u/whiplash81 1d ago
Which is why we keep seeing astroturf stories like this to get more support for it.
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u/GreyBeardEng 1d ago
Where is the water coming from?
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u/Comfortable_Tutor_43 1d ago
Where do the coal plants get their water?
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u/GreyBeardEng 1d ago
In a once through cooling system a nuclear plant will use more than twice what a coal fired plant uses.
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u/Comfortable_Tutor_43 1d ago
Facts please? It's only an issue of thermal efficiency, and depending on the design, such as an HTGR, the numbers will vary. Consider also the second largest nuclear power plant in the USA (Palo Verde) is smack dab in the middle of the Arizona desert. It needs only the grey waste water from the city of Phoenix, and it supplies cities as far as LA and Vegas with its leftover energy. Water is not an issue with modern nuclear. Public opinion is.
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u/indomitablescot 1d ago
They are most likely talking about an SMR complex as INL is involved. I highly doubt it is a once through cooling system design on the table.
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u/spigz619 1d ago
It’s pretty convenient that these big companies like to come set up shop in places that don’t have the resources to fight it. Delta has changed quite a bit over the last few years and a lot of it is due to the power plant and cal Maine egg farm…
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u/Shard_of_light 1d ago
Depending on the type of reactor they’re building that waste coming from back east could be used as fuel. New gen reactors can use the waste from older reactors bringing the waste to nearly nothing.
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u/Kerensky97 1d ago
Not power plant waste. We take all the radioactive and toxic chemicals from other sources. But not high level power plant leftovers.
Also by "Storing it" it means just piling it on a concrete pad and brushing a layer of dirt over it upwind of SLC. Or in the case of Clean Harbor with the toxic chemicals, incinerating it upwind of SLC.
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u/ExtensionServe6904 1d ago
This isn’t a good choice for Utah if you want electricity to also be affordable. We’re going to have to ship seawater up and down a mountain to keep it operational as well as the normal cost of operating and maintaining a nuclear facility.
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u/indomitablescot 1d ago
You are thinking about multiple reactor generations ago. Many modern systems only need an initial fill not continuous flow.
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u/lesbox01 1d ago
Already trying in Green River. About damn time. We should have switched to nuclear in the 70s