By Senator Tom Brewer
Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownsville this week. What a great day for Nebraskans who like reliable, affordable energy that does not pollute our environment. Always-on, 24/7/365, base-load generation. What we need more of in Nebraska. Even with our nearly-worst-in-the-nation taxes, load is growing in Nebraska. We need more generation built in Nebraska, and I hope Nebraskans support making new generation nuclear.
One of the things I learned on my tour of this first-class facility was Cooper’s involvement in the Cold War. In 1998, the reactor was re-fueled with uranium that had been re-purposed into power-plant fuel from old Soviet nuclear weapons. It was a federal program from the many nuclear disarmament treaties President Reagan successfully negotiated. It made the world safer and powered Nebraska’s economy. This program in 1998 is a great example of a competent President and a federal bureaucracy eager to do the right thing, regardless of the political optics.
NPPD is one of 21 utilities that are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to operate a nuclear power plant in the United States. Nebraska has (and what became NPPD) a long track record of generating electricity using safe, clean, reliable and affordable nuclear power.
First proposed in 1955, construction on the Hallam sodium reactor began on April 1, 1959. The entire facility was completed on November 30, 1961. Full power was achieved in July 1963. This facility was shut down only a few years later because of flaws in the reactor design. Nonetheless, Nebraska has almost a century of experience with nuclear power. We are blessed with hundreds of highly trained professionals, many requiring a federal license, to work in this industry. We have a lot of experienced professionals with decades of experience that understand how to do nuclear power correctly. We should be leading the country with this technology.
I would certainly welcome and strongly support a Nebraska partnership with the Department of Defense with the goal of Offutt AFB being the first military installation in the United States with its own hardened, small, modular micro nuclear power reactor. These are similar to the designs used by the US Navy in ships and submarines. They have been safely operated since the 1950s. USSTRATCOM and Offutt AFB should have their own, dedicated power grid with the ability to interconnect with OPPD to serve customers in the event of disaster. This helps protect Nebraska’s most populous city and hardens and makes more resilient what I consider to be America’s most important military installation.
Congratulations NPPD. Here’s to Cooper Nuclear Station delivering safe, reliable and affordable power for another half century!
Please contact my office with any comments, questions, or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.