Calgary-based Energy Alberta revealed plans for what could become the province’s first nuclear power plant today but remained tight-lipped on a consumer who would absorb the majority of its energy.

Energy Alberta announced it has filed an application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for a license to own and operate a nuclear power plant site 30 km west of Peace River.

The plant would eventually host two CANDU reactors and produce 2,200 megawatts of electricity, 30% of which would be returned to the grid, said its president Wayne Henuset.

The remaining 70% would be consumed by a larger consumer, he said.

“We have a number of customers we are dealing with,” Henuset said, adding he declined to name them for confidentiality reasons.

Energy Alberta spokesman Dale Coffin suggested the customer could be a heavy industry company or one that requires a large amount of energy.

“Ideally you want to have one big customer that’s going to take the most of it, and that’s what we’re working with now is one large customer,” Coffin said.

“At this point it’s too early for us to talk about customers.”

Henuset said nuclear energy is a cleaner alternative for Alberta as its energy needs are growing by about 400 megawatts each year.

“There’s no doubt that Alberta needs a large, reliable, clean power source to meet its future needs,” he said, adding that nuclear doesn’t emit greenhouse gases.

“It’s clean, it’s reliable,” uses less water and would stabilize energy prices, he said.

But Leila Darwish, associate director of the Sierra Club’s Prairie chapter, said nuclear energy is neither safe, economical nor clean.

“It’s actually incredibly dirty and incredibly dangerous,” she said.

“Environmentally speaking the process of mining, creating a lot of the materials for the nuclear plant, are highly dangerous to the environment.”

And though town councils in Peace River and Grimshaw have endorsed the proposed plant, Darwish said many residents are concerned about its health and environmental impacts.

“Nuclear energy is not a fail-safe technology,” she said.

Calgary geologist Jack Century questioned a proposed idea of storing waste deep underground, saying Peace River, the most fault-ridden area of the province, is potentially prone to earthquakes.

“Putting it into the ground is ridiculous,” Century said.