Small Alaska Village Eyeing Nuclear Power

February 7, 2005

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Fed up with the hassles of importing expensive diesel
fuel, residents of one interior Alaska village are trying to install a
miniature nuclear reactor that advocates say could be a model for clean
energy production in remote sites.

Officials in Galena, an Athabascan Indian village on the Yukon River, are
pursuing an offer from Toshiba Corp. to install an experimental reactor that
would heat and light the town.

The 700 residents of the village, 275 miles (440 km) west of Fairbanks, say
they have to cope with electricity bills that are three times the national
average.

The reactor would be free and require no attendance, Toshiba says. Galena
would pay for only the operating costs, according to news reports.

Galena officials met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington,
D.C., on Wednesday. If the commission approves the plan, the reactor would
be the first new one permitted in the United States since the early 1980s,
according to an Alaska Public Radio Network report on Thursday.

Energy to power electricity is important to Galena. Winter temperatures can
dip below minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 51 Celsius). Daylight is scarce
because of the short days during the winter.

Galena is powered by generators burning diesel that is barged in during the
Yukon River's ice-free months. That is costly and carries its own
environmental risks because diesel can spill.

Tribal officials from around the region and environmentalists say they are
suspicious of the nuclear proposal.

"Why is Toshiba doing this, giving it away for free, trying to foist this
experimental technology on rural Alaska when they can't even license this in
Japan?" said Pam Miller, program manager for Alaska Community Action on
Toxics, an Anchorage-based environmental group.