The Denver International Airport (DEN) in the US has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to study the feasibility of building a small modular reactor (SMR) on the DEN site. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and DEN CEO Phil Washington announced the RFP. The announcement coincided with the day Colorado law changed the classification of nuclear energy’s definition under state law to include it as a clean energy resource.
DEN is planning for a future when more than 120m passengers a year will use the facility by 2045. It is looking to nuclear energy as a potential source for clean operations.
“As we work to make DEN the greenest airport in the world, we must explore every innovative solution available to meet the demands of a growing city and a changing climate,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “Studying the potential of small modular nuclear reactors is a forward-looking step in understanding how we can deliver reliable, clean energy at scale.” He added that he realises SMR technology is relatively new, and this prompted the need to conduct a study.
“We know that anything we would do would require significant investment and that SMRs are complex, said DEN CEO Phil Washington. “So, we are keeping an open mind, learning more and continuing to responsibly plan for the airport’s future.”
The $1.25m study is expected to take between 6-12 months to complete and will seek to answer the following questions:
- Is an SMR solution viable for DEN to meet its long-term electrical and energy needs;
- What are the various types of SMR technology;
- What is a potential cost estimate, and potential funding options;
- What are the risks involved; and
- What government regulations are required to build and operate an SMR.
Washington said considering an SMR is one alternative for the megawatts needed for airport growth and would help Denver be “the masters of our own energy fate” He noted that the study, to be funded with airport money is not a commitment to any plan.
The airport currently draws about 45 MW of power, and projects are already underway that will add 40 MW more to that demand, Washington added. Modular reactors under development range in size from 30MW of generation up to 300MW; they can be built largely off-site and trucked in on semitrailers, and in theory could be “stacked” or expanded whenever DIA anticipates big power demands. A modular reactor at DIA would likely be placed underground, he said.
The proposal has met with criticism from various sources. Ed Lyman, a physicist and director of nuclear safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that neither the safety, nor the economics, nor the environmental consequences of nuclear power have improved in the 40-plus years since American industry largely stopped building or seeking permits for new plants. He added that there is renewed buzz for the small reactors because the Trump administration is speeding up permitting reviews, and tech companies bursting with money need new power for artificial intelligence.
“The rhetoric and the advertising and the cheerleading has gotten so far ahead of the actual technology that it’s mind boggling,” he noted. “So I think they’re really overpromising. For decades, they’ve been trying to rehabilitate the technology, to kind of ‘greenwash’ the public into thinking that it’s a lot better for the environment, for public health, for the economy, than they really are.”
Chris Allred, nuclear guardianship coordinator at Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, and an environmental group based in Boulder, noted: “First of all, nuclear energy creates nuclear waste. It simply cannot be regarded as clean when it is creating waste that lasts countless generations. It’s being sold that it’s safer. It’s being rebranded as advanced nuclear with new designs that have yet to be implemented. There are many that are still in a prototype.”
