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Puerto Rico considering nuclear power as cheaper, more resilient alternative

Puerto Rico's largest political party is interested in building nuclear power plants and has introduced a legislative resolution to study that possibility.

Introduced Nov. 5 by the New Progressive Party, or NPP, in Puerto Rico's House of Representatives, the nuclear study resolution, H. 1189, would instruct the commonwealth legislature's government committee to investigate the possibility of constructing reactors on the island. As reported by Caribbean Business, H. 1189 would require the research to focus on new safer modular technologies. If the resolution is passed, the committee will have 180 days to present its findings to the House.

The resolution's sponsor — Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's conservative and pro-statehood NPP party — notably controls both Puerto Rico's House and Senate and occupies the seat of the island's non-voting member at the U.S. House of Representatives.

House Majority Leader Gabriel Rodríguez, NPP, stressed to Caribbean Business the "imperative to look for new, more efficient and less expensive" electricity sources in the aftermath September 2017's Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico's brittle transmission network still has not fully recovered from the storm's 155-mph winds and the island continues to depend mostly on expensive, carbon-emitting oil-, natural gas- and coal-fired generation.

Unlike fossil fuel-fired power plants, which need constant shipments of outside fuel supplies to operate, nuclear power plants are fuel secured, with existing traditional light-water reactors refueling only once every couple of years. Lawmakers have discussed publicly the possibility of building more renewables and natural gas-fired generation sources to keep the lights on but Rodríguez said each come with advantages and disadvantages.

"The important thing is we do not rule out any of the options in advance, among them the production of nuclear energy," Rodríguez said.

The NPP's nuclear resolution comes on the heels of the first-ever meeting between executives of U.S. nuclear vendors and Puerto Rican officials to discuss the economic feasibility of factory-fabricated, scalable and walk-away safe small modular reactors, or SMRs. The Oct. 30 meeting was hosted by the United Nuclear Industry Alliance and the newly formed Nuclear Alternative Project, which is a pro-nuclear advocacy group.

Among the potential nuclear technologies that could someday help power the island is NuScale Power LLC's 60-MW, passively cooled SMR design, which is the first SMR design to begin undergoing review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Given the superior safety and resiliency features of SMRs like NuScale's, we believe they are an optimal solution in the face of the extreme weather events that can threaten the island's energy infrastructure," NuScale Chief Commercial Officer Tom Mundy said in a statement.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Maria, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry discussed the idea of deploying SMRs to overhaul Puerto Rico's energy infrastructure. In March, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee, or CNTAC, published a position paper outlining the economic and export potential of SMRs for the island. The CNTAC is composed of representatives from the U.S. nuclear energy industry.

"The situation in Puerto Rico, although unfortunate, presents a timely opportunity for the U.S. civil nuclear industry," the CNTAC said in a March letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. "Today's SMR designs present the technological advances specially tailored for energy challenges of island-type territories like Puerto Rico ... For instance, some SMR designs are built underground, which could also potentially increase the island's energy security in future hurricane situations."

The CNTAC is following up the position paper with a study to assess in detail "unprecedented changes" in Puerto Rico's energy situation, including Rosselló intended privatization plans of Puerto Rico's sole utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, and the island's market conditions and infrastructure needs. The study will also provide U.S. utilities and SMR developers insight into SMR deployment in Puerto Rico.