Air Force mulls nuke power for electricity at Cannon

N.M., Idaho bases being considered for small reactors

| The Associated Press

3/9/2008 -

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said Cannon Air Force Base is one of two bases being considered to house small nuclear reactors to provide electricity.

"The thoughts are, right now, we're talking about Cannon out in New Mexico and Mountain Home up in Idaho," Wynne told reporters Wednesday after a congressional hearing, the news service Inside the Air Force reported Friday.

Air Force spokeswoman Vicki Stein confirmed Wynne's remarks, but said no formal list of possible sites has been drawn up, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Sunday.

Stein said the Air Force is 12 to 14 years away from a decision about where such a power plant might be built.

But she said the Air Force issued a request for proposals in January, looking for a private company that would be interested in building small nuclear power plants.

Cannon and Mountain Home are in the home states of senators who have pushed for the program: Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Domenici urged the Air Force in October to consider small nuclear reactors as part of a broad effort to reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels.

"One of New Mexico's military installations may provide an ideal location," Domenici wrote in a letter to the Air Force.

Such a reactor could supply "clean secure electricity for the host installation and surrounding areas," Domenici wrote.

The reactors would be much smaller than typical nuclear power plants, like the Palo Verde plant in Arizona that supplies some of New Mexico's electricity.

The U.S. government has been interested in nuclear power to provide electricity in developing countries.

But Domenici, in his letter, argued that small reactors could also be useful for meeting the military's electrical needs.