INL officials spell out energy plans

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POCATELLO — As the political arena erupts in calls for energy independence, the Idaho National Laboratory has long-range plans aimed at improving energy efficiency for both Idaho and the nation.

INL officials stopped at the Journal Wednesday where they spelled out energy development plans, and fielded questions about the situation. The experts were J.W. Rogers Jr., associate lab director for Energy and Environment; Robert M. Neilson Jr., department manager for Biofuels and Renewable Energy Technologies; and Tim Leahy, a nuclear authority.

With the price of oil near record levels and coal deemed a major source of greenhouse gas, INL spokesmen said the country must look as much as 50 years ahead in order to determine the most efficient fuels.

Three areas discussed Wednesday included electricity, bio-fuels and nuclear energy.

INL’s graphics showed that from this year on to 2060, there will be less dependence on conventional sources for energy and increased reliance on hydrogen, electricity and bio-fuels.

Leahy, director of nuclear safety and regulatory research at INL, said nuclear energy will be at the center of a looming energy shift from mostly carbon sources.

Leahy said nuclear energy has gained public acceptance recently.

“It’s striking that even some environmentalists are coming out and supporting nuclear,” he said, noting that nuclear energy is second to coal in world energy production.

Coal provides about 75 percent of the resources to produce electricity, but Leahy said some areas throughout the world are shifting to nuclear energy.

“That’s a long way around of saying that nuclear has got to be in the middle of it all,” Leahy said.

Looking down the road, the INL scientists foresee a Strategic Energy Park, a “hybrid” system that will include wind power, hydrogen generation, liquid fuels, carbon feedstock and nuclear island plants.

INL plans to have the project placed near an Air Force base, and it is expected the 600-megawatt nuclear power plant will be up and running between 2017 and 2020. They said commercial companies would initiate building and operating the project.

So far, more than 15 percent of the world employs nuclear power, and Leahy pointed to how some rural areas have begun employing small reactors to power areas far from electricity sources.

Aside from inflation, Rogers, INL’s associate laboratory director of energy and environment, said there are a number of other challenges driving the need to produce alternative fuels and energy independence.

One of those challenges is an increase in the world’s population.

“It’s really the whole challenge we have as a country,” Rogers said. “The quality of life is immediately linked to the amount of energy per capita. The demand is not going to go away.”

He said the main reasons for the Energy Strategic Park are based on economic and environmental stability and resource security, both in jeopardy as the U.S. makes trillion-dollar investments in foreign petroleum.

Rogers said coal and petroleum have not provided much fuel efficiency for the country, losing 56 percent in production.

Renewable energy, which is popular in the Gem State, makes up only about 2 percent of the country’s total fuel resources.

INL expects the earth will increasingly depend on bio-fuels in the near future. Officials said the country has a large availability of ethanol from agricultural and forest residue.

“If you break it all down, America needs power,” Leahy said.

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