By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

A CONSULTANT says the CNMI government should support moves to promote the use of wind power as an alternative source of energy in the islands rather than nuclear energy citing safety and cost as the main reasons.
Craig Mead is an associate of MangloEnergy, a local distributor for island wind power and alternative energy, and GoldPact Power, a firm exploring the possibility of developing a 120-tower megawatt wind power farm in the CNMI.
He said the privatization project of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will result in higher power rates in the long run because the generators will still be using diesel fuel.
“If one company wins that (privatization) contract, the price (of electricity) will go down slightly but it will go up in the long run,” said Mead.
Mead made a presentation in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon prior to the session upon the invitation of Rep. Manuel A. Tenorio, R-Saipan.
Mead said multiple sources of alternative energy should be encouraged such as electricity generated from wind turbines.
He said wind turbines are readily available and can be cheaply purchased in India, Japan or Europe.
He said a single household or a group of five can get their electricity from wind turbines at a lesser cost than the diesel-fuel energy currently produced by CUC.
Last week, the House heard Dr. Thomas Arkle Jr.’s presentation on the advantages of using nuclear energy.
A group of lawmakers later endorsed the passage of a nonbinding resolution asking the U.S. Department of Energy to help the Northern Marianas study the possibility of developing nuclear energy to solve its power crisis.
Of specific interest to them is a nuclear power plant that requires no refueling for up to 30 years. This technology is already being used in France and has no known harmful effects on the environment or consumers.
But the proposed project may initially need $30 million to build and would take years to construct.
Mead said there are risks involved in using nuclear energy and it is more expensive.
“In a future that involves a nuclear plant either on Saipan or…in the waters that flow toward Japan, few tourists will make the CNMI their first choice for a vacation destination. Airlines will be hard pressed to increase flights of empty planes; a trend even more pronounced as fuel prices continue to rise,” said Mead in papers he distributed to lawmakers.
“And if, for any reason, the nuclear reactor has a problem: tourism in the CNMI will again be crippled, if not dead forever. If that ‘event’ is anything major, such as a rise in the level of radioactivity in the stream flowing towards Japan or worse, the loss of that $30 million buried treasure, will be the death of tourism here for 250 centuries or 2,500 generations or 25,000 years,” he added.