By Jeffrey Jones CALGARY, Alberta, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Backers of the first nuclear power plant proposed for the western Canadian province Alberta sketched out their plans on Tuesday, but left questions unanswered including the identity of a mystery buyer for most of the electricity. Privately held Energy Alberta has agreed to supply a company with 70 percent of the 2,200 megawatt plant's output, but President Wayne Henuset declined to name the firm, its business or describe the stage of the deal, citing confidentiality agreements. "(The agreement is) as solid as it gets, I guess, five years out," Henuset said at a news conference. He was referring to his goal of starting construction around 2012. The C$6.2 billion ($5.8 billion) plant had first been proposed to provide both electricity and steam for the booming oil sands industry in northeastern Alberta. But Energy Alberta applied to Canada's nuclear safety authority on Monday to build it further west in the Peace River area and to provide just the power. Since the company first floated the idea two years ago, it has sparked debate among residents and politicians in Alberta, an oil- and coal-producing province that had officially rejected the notion of nuclear energy. Under the proposal, the debt-financed plant would start up in 2017. Government-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd would build a twin-unit ACR-1000 Candu reactor and Energy Alberta would own and operate it. Henuset said it could help solve a power supply crunch in Alberta, where he projected to jump by 400 MW annually. The capacity is about 20 percent of the province's current peak load. "There are no doubts Alberta needs a large, reliable, clean power source to meet its current future needs and there is no doubt in our minds Albertans are ready for nuclear power," he said. Radioactive waste would initially be stored near the plant, 30 km (19 miles) west of Peace River, but long-term storage is still being studied, said Stella Swanson, an environmental consultant to the project with Golder Associates. She pointed out Canadian Energy Minister Gary Lunn recently approved the idea of burying waste deep underground at a single location. Environmentalists have condemned the idea as too risky. Also attending the news conference were representatives of Citizens Advocating Use of Sustainable Energy, a group formed to oppose the plan. Among its many criticisms is that the Peace River region is susceptible to seismic activity, said CAUSE member Jack Century, a geologist and consultant to the oil industry. "Just to the west of the Peace River faulted area is Fort St. John (British Columbia), where oil fields have been inducing earthquakes as a result of conventional water-flooding. This is known to all seismologists, but sort of hidden in the oil patch," Century said. Swanson said the backers have done geological and engineering studies "at a regional level in a preliminary nature" and plan to keep studying such risks. "You're right, there have been earthquakes in the area, but it was not what we would call a fatal flaw for choosing this area," she said. Henuset, a Calgary-based businessman, has run a series of oil field service businesses and car dealerships and has also established a chain of liquor stores. His partner in Energy Alberta, Hank Swartout, founded Canada's biggest oil field service company, Precision Drilling <PD_u.TO>, and is on the boards of a handful of other firms. ($1=$1.06 Canadian)
