Small nuclear reactors planned for Port of Long Beach Play

The Trump Administration and the Port of Long Beach are planning a nuclear power plant 50 miles down the coast from Malibu.

More than one.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Port of Long Beach signed a deal to permit a relatively new startup to develop small modular nuclear reactors at the port.

The Los Angeles Daily News is breaking the story Tuesday morning.

Bluecore Energy, a company that was created eight months ago, plans to build what they call small modular reactors. If all goes well, the SMRs will eventually be used to generate electricity that will power some of the port's operations and vessels.

The Port Monday released a photo of the smiling port director, a beaming federal bureaucrat, and energy company and chamber of commerce officials.

The Bluecore founder says its Small Modular Reactor has been subjected to weather and safety tests — and Bluecore will follow regulatory criteria set out by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company's SMR will have three protective barriers to contain the uranium core, two shut-down systems and a passive power cut-off feature.

The nuclear power plants will be built in barges.

California, in fact, has had a moratorium on new nuclear project developments for the past 50 years. The moratorium was approved in 1976 and specifically banned the construction and licensing of new nuclear fission reactors until the federal government comes up with a long-term solution to handle radioactive waste disposal, according to the California Energy Commission.