KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA | Business Man wants More Nuclear Power Production in Tri-Cities

Business Man wants More Nuclear Power Production in Tri-Cities

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HANFORD, Wash-- A local business man says the Tri-Cities is an excellent place for nuclear energy production and wants to see more power plants built in the region. 

The Vice President of Hanford programs for TRIDEC says more nuclear energy in America is inevitable. It's a cheap clean source of energy that has a much higher capacity than oil. The major thing people are worried about is how to dispose of it. 

Countries like France, Germany, and Japan have the technology to recycle nuclear fuel, something the United States has not tapped into yet. 

The nuclear plant at Energy Northwest produces enough power a year to supply the city of Seattle. Several business leaders are hoping to some day expand nuclear energy production here in the Tri-Cities.

"There's not many places in the country that have what we have, we have water, we have major power transmission lines, we have land, and we have an educated work force," said Gary Peterson, VP of Hanford Programs for TRIDEC.

Peterson says politics is what has nuclear expansion at a stand still. Besides billions of dollars in financing a company would need political backing, something he says is very hard to come by in Washington State.