COUNTY NEWS

Alamos County Council voted 5-2 Tuesday evening for the County to continue on to the next phase of the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP). Members from the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted in favor last week on August 19 with a vote of three to two.

The CFPP is a proposed project to construct a nuclear electric generating facility to be sited at Idaho National Laboratory that uses small modular reactor technology. Los Alamos County has subscribed to 11.2 megawatts from the planned 720-megawatt facility with a $55 per megawatt hour target price.

Approving this next phase of the CFPP commits the county to $1,046,849, after the Department of Energy and NuScale cost sharing has been applied, to prepare the Combined Operating License Application (COLA).  Prior to submitting the COLA in May 2023, and prior to construction in December 2025, Los Alamos will have two additional off-ramp opportunities. The facility is slated to be operational in 2030.

Leading up to the BPU and Council decision meetings, the Department of Public Utilities staff gave presentations and answered questions from BPU members, councilors and the public at a joint BPU/Council meeting on July 28 and a town hall on August 3. Public feedback was also solicited through the county’s Open Forum platform.

More information on the CFPP is available on the county website at https://ladpu.com/CFPP. Additionally, the recorded BPU and Council meetings are also available on the county website. View the BPU meeting held on August 19: http://losalamos.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2035

and the County Council meeting held on August 25:  http://losalamos.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2040