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Commentaries and editorials

Build Nuclear Reactors to
Replace Lower Snake Dams

by Darryl Siemer
Post Register, August 8, 2021

A padlock secures a gate to Energy Northwest's nuclear plant No. 1 at Hanford, which was closed after being 60 percent completed when it was determined in the 1980s that the additional power wasn't needed. (Tri-City Herald File) The Lower Snake River's four run-of-the-river hydroelectric dams have a nominal power generating capacity of 3.24 gigawatt electric and an approximately 8 billion kilowatt-hour/annual energy output which corresponds to an actual power output of 0.91 gigawatts.

Rep. Mike Simpson's, R-Idaho, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer's, D-Oregon, $33 billion proposal would remove those dams, replace their shipping and electrical grid infrastructure, and financially compensate the communities immediately served by them. I'm in favor of removing those dams too but not until genuinely suitable nuclear reactors have replaced their power.

As a now ex, long-term Idaho resident, I'm convinced that it's too late to save the salmon because there were almost none of them left to save during the 42 years that I lived there. I'm also convinced that those legislators could and should insist that their region's national laboratories (Hanford and Idaho National Laboratory) prioritize the development of a sustainable nuclear fuel cycle capable of saving the world, along with southwestern Montana's and Idaho's too few remaining trout, not one that's just small, modular and/or advanced.


Darryl Siemer, Des Moines, Iowa
Build Nuclear Reactors to Replace Lower Snake Dams
Post Register, August 8, 2021

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