By
Lynda Williams
In
the last legislative session, Hawaii lawmakers
approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 136, directing
the Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO) to convene a
Nuclear Energy Working Group to study whether
“advanced” nuclear power could help meet the state’s
100% renewable energy goal.
I
serve on the working group as a physicist
representing the environmental organization 350
Hawai‘ i. Other members include representatives from
HSEO, the departments of Health and of Land and
Natural Resources, the state Public Utilities
Commission, and the University of Hawaii, along with
invited members from the U.S. Navy, nuclear-power
lobby groups and environmental groups. No kanaka
maoli-led organizations such as the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs or KAHEA were included — a serious
oversight in any discussion of Hawaii’s energy future.
The following reflects my response to the working
group survey on feasibility, safety and policy
issues.
Nuclear
power is not feasible in Hawaii because it faces
insurmountable legal
and technical
barriers. Article XI, Section 8 of the Hawaii State
Constitution prohibits the construction or operation
of any nuclear-fission reactor without a twothirds
vote of each house of the state Legislature — an
exceptionally high bar without sweeping political
change.
Hawaii
law also defines renewable energy as sources that
are naturally replenished, such as solar, wind,
ocean and geothermal — not technologies dependent on
mining that produce radioactive waste. By legal
definition, nuclear power cannot contribute to
meeting the
state’s renewable energy goals, unless the law is
changed.
Technical
barriers are even higher. Despite growing hype
around so-called “advanced” nuclear reactors, in
reality, there are no operating “advanced” reactors
anywhere in the world, no reliable timeline for when
any might come online, and a decades- long record of
cost overruns, cancellations and failed promises.
Every design being promoted — from small modular
reactors (SMRs) to molten-salt and thorium systems —
is still a nuclear reactor that splits uranium
atoms, generates radioactive waste and requires
extensive cooling, shielding and waste-management
infrastructure.
At
our first meeting in September, there
was discussion of whether Hawaii’s constitutional
requirement for a two-thirds legislative vote to
approve the construction of any nuclear-fission
plant could somehow be avoided. That notion reflects
a deep confusion driving this conversation: that
“advanced” nuclear systems are fundamentally
different from the fission reactors banned under
Article XI. They are not.
Some
advocates suggested that small “plug-and-play” SMRs
could be shipped to Hawaii, used briefly, and sent
back to the continent — a concept that exists only
in fantasy. Any nuclear reactor unit requires
installation, grid connection and refueling — all of
which constitute the operation of a nuclear-fission
facility under Hawaii’s Constitution. The
first draft of HSEO’s report is due Nov. 5, with a
final version to be submitted to the Legislature by
the end of the year — a challenging timeline for
such a complex report. How can anyone produce
a thorough feasibility analysis — including cost,
safety and environmental assessments — for a
technology that doesn’t even exist? Even HSEO warned
lawmakers in its testimony against this resolution
that “given the current lack of cost, production,
safety, and nuclear waste-management information on
SMRs, the formation of a nuclear energy task force
is premature.”
Hawaii’s
path forward in clean energy lies not in nuclear
fantasies but in strengthening the law protecting
Hawaii from nuclear waste and investing in what
already works — solar and wind — and in exploring
tidal and ocean-energy resources to achieve clean,
safe and independent power generation.
———
MORE
ONLINE:
For
my full responses with citations to the Nuclear
Energy Working Group survey, visit
nuclearfreehawaii. substack.com.
ISLAND
VOICES
Lynda
Williams, a physicist and Hilo resident, serves on
Hawaii’s Nuclear Energy Working Group; the views
here are her own.
