Protests hold up APS generators

Photos by Ian Wingfield / Staff
Members of the Partido del Trabajo (Labor Party) occupied the construction site last month where APS is building a dock for the generators to be unloaded, about six miles outside Puerto Peñasco.

 

A shrine along the highway to Puerto Peñasco bears a clear message. APS insists no radioactivity will touch the equipment.

 

Utility: Mexicans' nuclear fears baseless

By Tim Steller and Susanna Cañizo
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
 

Protests in Mexico have delayed delivery of $300 million in equipment for an Arizona nuclear power plant, and they threaten to break out again as the equipment nears arrival.

Arizona Public Service purchased the two steam generators from a company in Italy and is scheduled to bring them to a dock outside Puerto Peñasco over the next few days.

From there, the 800-ton generators are scheduled to be driven at 3 mph along the roads from Puerto Peñasco through western Pima County to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix. The approximately 200-mile trip is expected to take 17 days for each generator.

Problems with the project began earlier this year when a dispute arose between the mayor of Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, and APS. That dispute was resolved, but protests against the project broke out last month in Puerto Peñasco, Guaymas and Nogales, Sonora, delaying construction of a dock.

Protesters argue the generators are "nuclear components" that threaten Sonorans' health, but APS insists the generators are simply hulks of steel that won't contain radioactive material even after installation. A Mexican intermediary in the generator project predicted more protests once the generators arrive.

"They are going to try to do things like Greenpeace does, putting people in front of the transport when they are moving it on the highway, something like that," said Faustino Felix Escalante, the Sonoran governor's point man on the project.

Worries about the project have grown to the point that Gov. Jane Hull wrote a letter to Sonora Gov. Armando López Nogales on Oct. 16. The letter diplomatically implored López Nogales to ensure the generators' safe passage.

"I commend you for your insightful understanding of the need to take steps to ensure the successful, on-time completion not only of this particular project, but future steam generator landings for Palo Verde, as well," Hull wrote.

APS is planning to bring at least two more generators from Italy via this route. When the generators arrive, roads will occasionally be shut down as state-of-the-art transporters carry them slowly along the Mexican highway from Puerto Peñasco to the border at Sonoyta, then from Lukeville north on Arizona 85 to Gila Bend.

Travel will occur mostly at night, but from Gila Bend to Palo Verde, the generators will travel during the day on county roads.

The two new generators will boost Palo Verde's ability to generate power by 55 megawatts, said Gregg Overbeck, senior vice president of nuclear operations at APS. To put that number in perspective, Overbeck noted an entire gas-powered plant recently built by APS can generate 55 megawatts. Palo Verde's current capacity is 3,810 megawatts, and it generates power for 4 million customers in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico.

About 45 percent of the power generated at the plant stays in Arizona, and a small amount is sold to Mexican customers in San Luís Rio Colorado, Sonora.

One of the first roadblocks to the generators appeared five months ago, said Felix, who is also vice president of the Sonora-Arizona Commission. As APS was pursuing the necessary municipal permits for the project, Puerto Peñasco Mayor Rodrigo Vélez Acosta requested funding from APS for a sports complex.

APS "thought (Mayor) Vélez from Peñasco was asking for money in exchange for the permits," Felix said. "That misunderstanding was the one I was brought in to clear up."

The resolution came in the form of an unwritten agreement that APS would help build the sports park, the mayor and APS confirmed. Vélez placed the price tag at $150,000.

APS spokeswoman Sheri Foote said APS has also made road improvements in the border town of Sonoyta, and hired local people to do the work. She said the utility company has obtained about 25 permits from the Mexican government to move the generators through the country.

Nevertheless, problems accelerated last month when members of the Partido del Trabajo (Labor Party) occupied the construction site where APS is building a dock for the generators to be unloaded, about six miles outside Puerto Peñasco. Protesters spent 10 days at the site before Sonoran Judicial Police removed them Oct. 10.

Labor Party protests have also broken out in Guaymas, the port 260 miles south of Tucson where the generators are being stored until the tides are optimal for delivery. On Oct. 21, protesters briefly blocked the ports of entry in Nogales.

To the protesters' claim that generators may be radioactive, APS says the generators simply contain thousands of steel tubes that, once installed, carry water previously heated in the nuclear reactor.

That explanation has not stopped protest leaders such as Jaime Moreno Berry, the delegate from Sonora to the Labor Party's national committee.

"Whether or not they are radioactive, up till now no Mexican officials have offered us the assurance that Arizona Public Service has - that these (generators) don't contain radioactivity," Moreno Berry said. "As long as they fail to give us that assurance, they are playing with lives of a people."

Although the protesters say their main motivation is worry over environmental impacts, two other possible motives have emerged. One of them is money. Moreno Berry acknowledged asking that APS contribute $500,000 each to five groups for the passage of the generators. Among the groups are the Seri tribe and the city of Puerto Peñasco.

Felix said he suspects another motive. If the Labor Party, a minor player in Mexican politics, doesn't gain more than 1.5 percent of the vote nationwide in next year's midterm election, the party will lose its official registration and its public funding, he said.

"I think that's the main reason they're trying to do desperate things," Felix said.

Moreno Berry denied that either money or political support is his party's motivation for the protests. He wouldn't say whether protests will happen again when the generators arrive.

But they are arriving at an inauspicious moment, soon after two highly publicized blockades of roads in northern Sonora that trapped American travelers.

On Sept. 17, Sonorans protesting increased electric rates blocked traffic all day at Nogales' two ports of entry. On Oct. 19, fishermen and their supporters began a 30-hour blockade of the main highway between Puerto Peñasco and Arizona, the same road the generators must travel.

Whatever happens, Felix said, the state government is ready to take action if protests occur and there is no political way to end them.