HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Lead officials with Project Pele, the program to develop a mobile nuclear microreactor for the military, met with local lawmakers Thursday at the Guam Congress Building, where they were dealt a number of questions about the capabilities and safety of such reactors, as well as their purpose for coming to Guam.
A Project Pele prototype reactor is in the process of being built in Virginia and will be tested in Idaho by mid to late 2025.
Program manager Jeff Waksman told the media Wednesday that they are on an academic trip to learn about power needs and local issues in various locations, with the goal of facilitating a potential future decision from the Department of Defense on whether to build more reactors and where to place them.
He essentially told lawmakers the same thing Thursday, stating that no decisions have been made as to what might come in the future. In addition, Waksman stated that the Project Pele reactor is not being designed for the missile defense system planned for Guam.
But that did little to quell skepticism among some lawmakers.
“I find it interesting that a lot of the literature and the media reports and the things that we’ve been tracking in the nation’s capital indicate that nuclear microreactors on Guam seems to be more realistic than what we’ve been hearing from you,” Sen. Chris Barnett said Thursday.
Waksman said the microreactor is designed for resiliency of small scale systems – something that must be powered but requires only a few megawatts, such as hospitals or data centers.
The Project Pele reactor is meant to produce only 1 to 5 megawatts. The most sensible thing would be to use these reactors in places where fossil fuel logistics are the most challenged, broadly meaning arctic and island locations, according to Waksman.
“There are a number of islands in the Pacific that we’re looking at. … The media hears far-flung islands and military bases, they think of Guam. But as you know, there’s others,” Waksman said.
Barnett also asked if Project Pele took into account the possibility of a missile strike, referring to the threat of a potential attack on Guam from China.
Project Pele incorporates advanced gas reactor tri-structural isotropic encapsulated fuel, or AGR TRISO fuel. These are tiny encapsulated fuel particles, of which millions will be housed within the reactor core. Waksman said the worst-case scenario would be if those particles did make it out of the reactor, and the priority from the start was to ensure that wouldn’t happen.
“The design from the very beginning, not just the design but also the concept of operations for the shielding you put around (the reactor), but also the concept for where you would deploy it, would all be driven by those concerns. And so, if the DOD felt that the risk that threaten a location would be powerful enough … my guess is the DOD would not deploy to those locations,” Waksman said.
TRISO fuel
Regarding safety, Waksman said the TRISO fuel can withstand incredibly high temperatures, averting the risk of a meltdown. He also stated that, due to the particles being individually encapsulated and containing nuclear fission product gasses within them, it is unlikely that a large fraction of radioactive material will be released even if the reactor was breached.
There can still be a partial release of material, and Waksman has stated that contaminated air may reach a couple hundred yards. But with TRISO fuel, he said, the risk of creating a large contamination zone “goes away.”
Sen. Sabina Perez asked Waksman if he was familiar with the history of radiation exposure on Guam. Perez introduced legislation last year, along with Barnett and Speaker Therese Terlaje, to ban nuclear power on island.
“I can’t believe you’re trying to make the claim that it’s safe in a community that has suffered from so many years regarding radiation exposure,” Perez said.
Waksman said there are risks in anything, and all that can be done is to minimize those risks.
“Nuclear is the safest form of energy that exists, as it is today. … I would much rather be living near a nuclear reactor than near a fuel farm. The fuel farms get in the water, they pollute the water,” he added.
Later on, as Perez talked about issues with shipping, the lack of a facility to handle hazardous waste on Guam and concerns about being able to store other forms of waste, Waksman commented that those concerns show why nuclear power would be a “wonderful option” for an island.
According to Waksman, plans need to be in place regarding how nuclear waste will be taken off island “before you even show up.”
“There can be no process where it just gets left behind because someone declares bankruptcy or changes their mind. So this is the one form of waste that you know will be off the island, as opposed to anything else,” Waksman said.
‘Promoting’
Perez remarked that she felt it was “arrogant” of Waksman to be on Guam “promoting” the safety of nuclear power, particularly to a community that has “experienced a lot of harms coming from nuclear power, nuclear weapons.”
“I’m here because I can understand the difference between nuclear energy and nuclear bombs. What you’re describing are nuclear bombs, which I am not a fan of and I’m not promoting. Just because it has the word nuclear in it does not make it the same thing,” Waksman replied.
“I’m very sorry about the things that were done in the past with nuclear bombs. That has nothing to do with anything that we’re doing here,” he added.
Sen. Joanne Brown said she believed lawmakers were all of the opinion that there has to be an “ultimate reason” as to why Project Pele leads were on Guam briefing lawmakers on the project, but she appreciated their expertise.
“I’m sure from your vantage point you’re advocating something you’ve worked with and you believe in. It’s just the other dynamics that go with it that we on this side … (have) been subject to some of the challenges with DOD. It’s that history, unfortunately, that provides us a degree of skepticism that we have with regard to DOD’s activities,” Brown said.
Skepticism regarding DOD’s intentions aren’t limited to lawmakers. Just as they did Wednesday when Project Pele officials met with local media, members of the activist group Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian demonstrated against Project Pele at the Guam Congress Building Thursday. Prutehi Litekyan opposes the use of nuclear power in Guam for military infrastructure.
“Why are they here to speak to our senators and to our media if there’s no true intention to bring these (microreactors) to Guam eventually?” said Prutehi Litekyan member Monaeka Flores.
Ultimately, Waksman said they’ll be reporting back everything they learned, including political and cultural concerns.
“We would not advise putting these reactors anywhere that doesn’t want them. If the overwhelming majority of the population says we don’t want them here, then I would advise the DOD to acquiesce to that. But there are a lot of places that do want them. So this is all part of the analysis that we provide to them and eventually someone will tabulate them all up in an Excel spreadsheet and decide what the best places are,” Waksman said.
