Idaho Falls hopes to run on nuclear energy. Here’s what that means

Kaitlyn Hart, EastIdahoNews.com

The Aalo-1 from Aalo Atomics. | Aalo Atomics

IDAHO FALLS — Idaho Falls Power and Aalo Atomics aim to make Idaho Falls run on nuclear power by 2030.

After announcing negotiations with Aalo Atomics, a nuclear engineering company, Idaho Falls Power says progress is being made toward buying clean energy to power the city.

Aalo Atomics’ first product, the Aalo-1, is a 10-megawatt reactor that its designers say could power at least 10,000 homes. Idaho Falls Power is trying to buy the electricity from a fleet of seven.

“About a year ago, their founder, Yasir Arafat, connected with me and approached Idaho Falls Power,” says Bear Prairie, general manager of Idaho Falls Power. “They were working on taking the work he’d been doing at INL with the MARVEL reactor and scaling it up to make a commercial megawatt reactor.”

According to Idaho National Laboratory, the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation (MARVEL) microreactor, which is scheduled to go online in 2026, will produce nearly 85 kilowatts of heat, which will be converted to about 20 kilowatts of electricity.

Yasir Arafat and the MARVEL reactor at INL | Idaho National Laboratory

Inspired by INL’s MARVEL reactor, Idaho Falls Power hopes to purchase the energy from a fleet of Aalo-1s to advance the city’s nuclear footprint and promote clean energy.

“If it meets our energy needs at a price point that is competitive with other generation resources and such, we need to make sure it’s economically and operationally in our customers’ best interests,” says Prairie. “Nuclear has always been something we’re very interested in because it’s really difficult to build new hydro(power), which is carbon-free. So nuclear becomes the next viable option for carbon-free electricity that operates 24 hours a day.”

The fleet is expected to be kept at Idaho Falls Power’s new Idaho Falls Peak Generation Plant and Clean Energy Research Park, which Aalo will be leasing space at, no earlier than 2030.

Matt Loszak, CEO of Aalo Atomics, says the Aalo-1 is no bigger than a shipping container and hopes that one day it will be used nationwide for all kinds of energy needs.

“It can fit in someone’s garage, but it can power anything from a data center to 10,000 homes,” says Loszak. “A fleet of reactors is kind of special and unique because instead of having one large reactor, you deploy a fleet of a few smaller reactors.”

Loszak says the longterm price per reactor is $50 million. The electricity price is expected to remain about the same for the customer.

“It’s just so fascinating that oil and gas will really only last us at least another couple hundred years if we were to burn every last drop,” says Loszak. “And what’s amazing is nuclear could last society for 4 billion years.”

To Aalo Atomics, Loszak says Idaho Falls is the perfect place to spearhead the “second atomic age,” citing its rich nuclear history and research background.

“(MARVEL) was established in the ‘nuclear womb’ that is Idaho National Laboratory,” says Loszak. “So there is some familiarity there. … The region has historically been where nuclear energy got started.”

Originally from Ontario, Canada, Loszak says nuclear energy has transformed the lives of his friends and family specifically, changing the landscape of his hometown and giving him a passion and drive to spread clean energy across the globe.

“I grew up in Ontario, where we transitioned from coal to nuclear in the early 2000s. I used to have asthma and breathing attacks, and those actually went away when they transitioned from coal to nuclear,” says Loszak. “We used to have 60 smog days per year, and now we have zero, so it’s been pretty cool to see that transition.”

As for the actual technology, Loszak says providing an opportunity for a city to be powered by nuclear energy has economic, health, and environmental benefits when compared to other types of renewable energy.

“Nuclear is statistically as safe as solar or wind, so I think it’s pretty incredible how the nuclear industry has done a good job of maintaining safety and reliability,” says Loszak. “I think people are starting to realize in the past five or 10 years that … hey, nuclear is actually as safe as solar, and it’s clean, uses a lot less land and can be much less of an eyesore.”