MidAmerican withdrawing nuke plans in Idaho

MidAmerican Energy and its newly created MidAmerican Nuclear Energy subsidiary announced Sunday they’re withdrawing plans to develop a nuclear power plant northwest of Boise in Payette County.

MidAmerican is the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power and PacifiCorp and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway and billionaire investor Warren Buffett. MidAmerican Nuclear Energy’s representatives told more than 400 concerned residents of southwest Idaho just before Christmas that the company had spent about $13 million to analyze the Payette site for the company’s proposed Idaho nuclear plant. That analysis wasn’t expected to be complete until this fall, but the company pulled the plug without waiting for the results on the grounds building a nuke plant doesn’t make economic sense in the current climate.

Mr. Buffett and MidAmerican realize a 1,600MW merchant nuclear power plant in Owyhee County is not something Idahoans will support (70 percent of Idahoans surveyed by Boise State University say they oppose construction of a merchant nuclear plant in Idaho to meet out-of-state power demands), and also something that simply makes no sense from an economic, environmental, or energy policy standpoint.

For more information on the current state of nuclear development in Idaho, please contact member organization Snake River Alliance.