Last week, the Chief Operating Officer of Deep Fission, Mike Brasel met with representatives of the American Advocacy Initiative to answer questions regarding the nuclear borehole project at Great Plains Industrial Park.
AAI Executive Director Taylor Moreland attended the meeting with Bryan Coover, a former engineer from Galesburg, Kansas. AAI is a Parsons-based nonprofit seeking to increase civic engagement and aid in connecting community members with local resources.
“The meeting was requested by me. I wanted answers for the public. Why the groundbreaking was so rushed, how the project will benefit the community, safety precautions, and if this project will bring local jobs,” Moreland told the Parsons Sun. “We were able to obtain answers to most of those questions.”
In a post from the American Advocacy Initiative Facebook Page, Moreland said that Brasel admitted that the notice to the public and initial community engagement was not executed well. Moreland said the group was informed of steps that will be taken moving forward. She also noted that Bryan is an experienced engineer himself, and that he inquired about potential risks, how the company plans to prevent them, and what the consequences could be.
In a following post, a statement from Bryan was included about the project timeline.
“My understanding of the project timeline: First: a small diameter boring to depth will be made to confirm expected geology as predicted by experts on southeast Kansas geology. Second: A production-sized boring was to be completed in order to allow for testing some of the nonnuclear technologies being developed, as part of this nuclear power production system. Third: only after successful results in steps one and two, will the company move toward testing with an actual reactor down the borehole,” Bryan said. “A lot of people with extensive nuclear power operation experience will be in place before that final step. Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other industry safety organizations will be involved before actual criticality. The July 4, target for nuclear component testing was the Trump administration’s wish list as part of the executive order encouraging new nuclear technologies. I’m sure none of the eleven companies around the country currently exploring new nuclear technologies have any expectation of going critical by July.”
Of potential employment opportunities, Bryan said more help will be needed as the timeline progresses.
“Many of these are highly skilled operations positions that will likely require people to relocate to the Parsons area. I would expect construction jobs, security jobs, et cetera, will be locally hired,” Bryan said. “If this is all successful, and the final phase of a full-sized power generation plant is realized, we might assume significant employment. Wolf Creek employs about 860 people. Of course, this possibility is well down the road.”
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Moreland said that Bryan’s presence at the meeting was very helpful in understanding the safety precautions that will be in place.
“Having Bryan there helped me understand what Mike was talking about when it came to safety precautions, especially. This is a new technology, so we won’t know until it’s active, but from what I understand, there are multiple prevention layers in place, and precautions for if — God, forbid — something goes wrong,” Moreland said. “That made me feel better at least about the safety aspect. But still, there is always that chance. Mike said he can ‘never say never’ which is the case for most anything, but he did say he is confident in their precautions.”
Moreland said that during the meeting, she also learned more about the jobs of those working on the reactor in the future.
“From what we were told, the team will consist of engineers and operators whose careers are based around finding faults within nuclear reactors,” Moreland said. “It seems like everything that can be done to prevent a devastating event is being done, but like Brasel said, you can never say never. I appreciated him not coming to tell us, ‘Oh, everything is perfect, nothing bad can happen ever.’” Moreland said that it was explained to her how the reactor will be built, installed, refueled, and how it will be operated. She also noted that additional details about the meeting will be shared in the future as well.
During the Deep Fission groundbreaking last December, It was reported that public stakeholder meetings were expected to occur in January. Moreland said that those meetings are now expected to occur in March.
“We hope to help facilitate these as we hold our monthly AAI meetings at the public library,” Moreland said. “We have one Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. It’s not to focus on the Deep Fission project, but we will answer any questions people have about what information we got at the meeting with Mike Brasel.”
In other Deep Fission news, the Great Plains Development Authority held a meeting on Thursday, Feb. 19. During a special meeting held on Monday, Feb. 9, the board voted to modify Deep Fission’s existing lease agreement. Great Plains Industrial Park Director Brad Reams said the lease will include the purchase of the property by Deep Fission upon Commercialization.
Coverage of the Feb. 19 meeting will be included in a future edition of the Parsons Sun.
