Small Town Bets Big on Power Source Replacement to Keep it Up, Running and in Existence

KEMMERER, Wyo. -- Images like those seen in Peru's recent oil spill tend to spark conversations about finding cleaner sources of energy.  

A small town in Wyoming that's relied on coal for more than one hundred years, may be transformed by a new take on another power source, although it's one that's been highly contested since it first arrived in Idaho roughly 70 years ago.

Until recently, Kemmerer was little-known for anything except J.C. Penney's first store and fish fossils that are said to be 55 million years old found in its quarries.

In November, TerraPower, announced it had chosen Kemmerer for a sodium-cooled nuclear reactor.

Many residents see the project as a much-needed economic boost because Rocky Mountain Power's Naughton power plant will close in 2025, which is expected to leave more than 500 people without jobs. TerraPower has reportedly pledged to train workers so anyone interested can transition to working at the nuclear plant when it opens. The plant remains years off — 2028 is the current estimate — but the news has already triggered interest in real estate, as the relatively small plant, could power about 345,000 to 500 thousand homes.

The high heat-transfer properties of sodium will allow the plant to be air-cooled, which is meant to enable it to be quickly shut down in case of an emergency, and the absence of emergency generators and pumps will save on costs. The government still has to approve the technology before the plant can be built, but the idea is that the salt heated "battery" will allow the plant to ramp up electricity production on demand, offsetting dips in electricity when the wind isn't blowing and sun isn't shining, but some are skeptical about the benefits of sodium compared to water for cooling as in conventional nuclear plants, and the plant's fuel, at least at first, would need to come from Russia, which has been using similar technology since 2016.

It requires uranium fuel enriched to 20%, four times higher than in conventional nuclear plants which the U.S. doesn't currently have available for commercial use.

The project is projected to cost $4 billion, half of it coming from the U.S. Department of Energy, but costs are expected to come down as demand for carbon-free energy grows and more are built.