Red River Valley boasts ‘best of many worlds’ for nuclear power

Republican U.S. Senate candidate discusses proposal to build nuclear plant in D.C.

Sand held press conferences in Grand Forks and Fargo and a public input meeting in Hillsboro on Wednesday to further discuss his “Seven-Point American Energy Policy” that includes the top goal of building 20 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

The Red River Valley in eastern North Dakota has “the best of many worlds” that make it ideally suited for a nuclear power plant, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Duane Sand said Wednesday.

Sand held press conferences in Grand Forks and Fargo and a public input meeting in Hillsboro on Wednesday to further discuss his “Seven-Point American Energy Policy” that includes the top goal of building 20 new nuclear power plants over the next 20 years.

He said it will take at least that many to replace the two dozen plants that will have to be decommissioned in the next two decades because they will reach their maximum 60-year lifespan.

And with a growing economy and population, he said the nation will need more nuclear plants that can offer one of the “safest, cleanest and greenest” forms of power to keep up with the growing demand for energy.

“One of our biggest issues for the future is to create and meet the new electrical energy demands that our country will require in the 21st century for a growing economy,” he said. “And it will create those jobs right here in North Dakota, where we can send that power to Minnesota a short distance to the grid that can power a large part of the United States from there.”

Why here?

Sand, a former Navy nuclear submarine officer and inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the Red River Valley is one of the most seismically stable areas of North America.

It also has major air and ground transportation arteries and is close to the Eastern Interconnection, one of the continent’s two major power grids that could move the energy to Minnesota and on to Chicago and northeastern U.S. metro areas that need it.

“I’ve spent two years working for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspecting most of the nuclear power plants in the Midwest, and I can tell you that we have the best of many worlds when it comes to the most opportune ways of providing power safely and reliably with minimal, if any, impact to the environment,” he said.

Sand said he favors building a plant on the North Dakota side of the Red River Valley because the project would bring a $10 to $14 billion private investment to the state that would create 3,000 permanent jobs and 4,500 construction jobs while adding millions of dollars of new wages and tax revenues to the local economy.

Northwestern Minnesota offers many of the same perks for a nuclear plant, but has a moratorium on new nuclear construction, he said.

Questions

Sand, who is competing with Republican Rep. Rick Berg for the GOP endorsement of the U.S. Senate, first discussed his energy proposal in December.

He said his plan to push for a nuclear power plant in the Red River Valley already has earned the interest of major companies, and he plans to hold a symposium of businesses and local officials from communities with nuclear plants in May to further discuss the issue.

The project would require a large financial investment, but Sand said U.S. companies that operate nuclear power plants are holding onto billions of dollars right now over the “uncertain future” of nuclear energy that he said was created by the Obama administration.

A more pro-energy president who can restore that certainty could help these companies make a “big investment” again, he said.

But Sand said there are good and bad aspects that come with any plan, and he now is working to answer the questions about safety and logistics that he expects North Dakotans will have before they could back his proposal.

“What I want to do as a United States Senator is bring the people to the table that are necessary to help make this happen in North Dakota, if indeed the people of North Dakota are supportive and it makes sense to do,” he said. “And I think it does.”