UT regents give thumbs up to nuclear reactor
UTPB ready to move forward with design for Andrews site
By David J. Lee
Odessa American
University of Texas System regents on Thursday threw their support behind a proposed test nuclear reactor in Andrews.
“Everything went great today with the regents,” UTPB President David Watts said. “It was a great day.”
The regents approved a teaming agreement between the UT System, UT Permian Basin, UT Austin, UT Arlington, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, the City of Andrews, the City of Odessa, the City of Midland, Sandia National Laboratories, Thorium Power Inc. and General Atomics.
“It’s moving forward as we had hoped,” Andrews City Manager Glen Hackler said. “It’s one of the reasons why the parties to the agreement tried to move as quickly as we could — to put it in a position to move forward.”
The teaming agreement lasts for one year. The agreement is for all the organizations to lend their support to creating a pre-conceptual design for the proposed state-of-the-art facility in Andrews County.
“That design is the next step in our process to establish a high temperature test teaching and research reactor in West Texas,” Watts said.
Hackler echoed that.
“The pre-conceptual design is critical toward ultimately getting the test reactor facility funded and built,” he said. “Without the pre-conceptual design, it’s only an idea. This is a critical next step to making it a reality.”
Each of the three communities backing the project — Andrews, Odessa and Midland — has committed to spending $500,000 toward a pre-conceptual design for the test nuclear reactor facility.
The Odessa Development Corp. and the Midland Development Corp. — both of which are funded by local sales taxes — each committed $500,000 to the pre-conceptual design. The city and county of Andrews have each pledged $250,000 to the design.
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin has received pledges for all $3 million needed for a pre-conceptual design for the proposed state-of-the-art test nuclear reactor in Andrews.
“We have commitments for all the money — for every penny of the $3 million,” Watts said.
Half of that money came from Andrews, Odessa and Midland. Thorium Power of McLean, Va., has pledged $1.25 million. The other quarter of a million dollars has come from individual and corporate donations.
Meanwhile, the regents noted that the teaming agreement “relates solely to the parties’ desire to work collaboratively together to complete the PCD.”
After the pre-conceptual design, a new teaming agreement would be needed — with approval from the UT Board of Regents — if any of the parties wanted to help with the actual construction of the reactor.
“The PCD is going to be a reality,” Watts said. “And the next step, of course, is to get regents’ approval to proceed with the next phase of the plan.”
Acquiring funding for the engineering, licensing and construction of the proposed High Temperature Test Teaching Reactor — dubbed HT3R (pronounced heater) — facility is a joint project between UTPB and General Atomics of San Diego, Calif.
If it goes ahead as planned, the HT3R would be the first nuclear reactor built in the Unites States since 1976.
Officials from General Atomics, UTPB, Andrews, Odessa and Midland held two public forums in January. Response from both the Andrews community and those of Odessa and Midland seemed favorable toward the idea.
The proposed facility in Andrews would include three components — a high-temperature, gas-cooled teaching and test reactor; a high-temperature process laboratory to develop and test other methods of the economical production of synthetic fuels and hydrogen; and a Brayton Cycle Laboratory for development of new methods to develop electricity with increased efficiencies.
According to the UT System Regent’s docket item, HT3R represents new nuclear technology that is different from technology used at the nation’s estimated 108 existing nuclear reactors. It is helium-cooled instead of water-cooled and, because of that and other technology advances, offers the opportunity to conduct research on a safer, more reliable reactor that produces hydrogen as a waste stream.
UTPB has said if the residents of Andrews agree, the university would proceed with developing a non-federally funded $3 million pre-conceptual design. That design would be used to try to raise about $400 million to engineer, license and construct the facility beginning as soon as spring of 2007.
That design would also determine what the reactor would look like, where it would be located, how large it would be and what it would end up costing.
Watts said General Atomics would be the manager of the pre-conceptual design. UTPB will coordinate all the elements of the study, including academics, technical and business aspects.
Watts said all the partners in the teaming agreement are eager to get moving on the project.
“I’ve been in contact with a number of them since regents’ action,” Watts said. “There’s a great excitement. The people at General Atomics are very excited. Our partners at UT institutions are excited. The regents, including the chairman, vice chair and the chancellor, all expressed a great deal of support and interest in the project.”
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