The session was moderated by New Mexico Senator Liz Stefanics, a co-chair of the Westrends Board. The co-chairs, including Wyoming Representative Landon Brown, and members would like to recognize and thank the speakers who shared their insights and expertise.
Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) – Trending Issues in the West: Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
An impressive team of speakers comprised of Andy Worrall, Director of Nuclear Energy Programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Jon Grams, Project Researcher for Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear at Idaho National Laboratory; and Chase Blaeser, Analyst at Envoy Public Lands, provided members insightful and current information on nuclear energy.
As states try to meet their climate goals and the nation embarks on a clean energy transition to lower Co2 emissions, a collective voice calling for including nuclear energy as a sound alternative is growing louder at various government levels.
SMRs—Small Modular Reactors—are one option. The U.S. military has used them since the 1950s. That history may be part of the reason for resistance in considering their deployment. Nuclear plants used to take an exceedingly long time to build and often had cost overruns, but now experts say that due to the ability to standardize the process of building SMRs, they could be up and running in two to three years without cost overruns.
According to the World Nuclear Association, as of 2023, nuclear energy provides approximately 30% of low-carbon electricity globally. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), almost 70 different SMR technologies are being developed. Moreover, legislation has been introduced at the state level, ranging from lifting moratoriums currently in place against the development of nuclear production to providing tax credits to encourage economic growth and increase the workforce.
Emerging Topics in Plastics & Recycling
Some call it the rise of the circular economy, while others prefer the adage of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Whatever you choose to call it, there is no denying that at every level of government, there is a conscious move towards making less waste, recapturing it to make new products, and overall reducing the number of materials producers are using to make stuff—the stuff we all buy. Why?
Materials such as plastic can be useful, and there is no substitute for it in some areas of our lives (think medical industry), but most people have also seen images or heard about floating plastic islands in more than one ocean. In the late 1990s, an oceanographer and boat captain, Charles Moore, stumbled upon the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Upon further investigation, it turns out that it is just one of five floating around the world.
Anja Brandon, Ph.D., and associate director of U.S. Plastics Policy at Portland-based Ocean Conservancy, shared that half of plastics have been produced in the last 18 years, and 40% are single-use. Some states have adopted a policy unpopular with producers, that shifts the responsibility of “end-of-life management” from governments and taxpayers to producers, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR.) Dr. Brandon also warned about the emerging threat of microplastics as recent studies have been discovered inside human bodies and are linked to tissue damage, inflammation, and oxidative stress. She also shared policy interventions to reduce microplastics.
Recycling initiatives and policies in Oregon
Oregon Senator Janeen Sollman prioritizes plastic reduction and discussed her bills to ban plastic bags, packing peanuts, polystyrene food ware, and coolers. She also highlighted her work on the Recycling Modernization Act, which created a shared-responsibility recycling system with producers in her state
Rachel Wiggins Emory from the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC,) who has collaborated with Senator Sollman, also joined the discussion. OBRC is the non-profit operator of Oregon’s Bottle Bill, passed by the Oregon Legislature in 1971 when recycling was not on most other states’ radars. The Bottle Bill was the first deposit-return system to minimize litter, incentivizing residents with a 5-cent refund when enacted in late 1972. That refund value went up to 10 cents in mid-2017, which grew the redemption rate from 64% before the increase to 81% after the increase.