Over lunch Monday, the Corvallis City Club envisioned a future in which the city's electricity needs could be met with portable nuclear reactors.

Advocating for the safety of this scenario was José N. Reyes Jr., professor and head of Oregon State University's nuclear engineering and radiation health physics department.

The featured speaker at the City Club's monthly meeting, Reyes shared how OSU researchers and engineers have helped design a self-contained, factory-built nuclear power reactor. Each of these mini-reactors, about the size of a railroad car, is designed to produce between 35 and 50 megawatts of power n enough to provide electricity to 35,000 homes.

"This has gotten quite a bit of attention from the United Nations," Reyes said. Developing nations are especially interested in the technology, he added.

Weapons laboratories in the United States have already stockpiled enough uranium to provide electricity to the nation for about 1,000 years at current usage rates, Reyes said. Holding up what looked like a large vitamin, he explained that one uranium fuel pellet can create as much electricity as 1,780 pounds of coal, 149 gallons of oil or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas n with no greenhouse gas emissions.

Reyes asserted that the federal government is willing to allow the uranium to be used for energy production.

"It's already happening," he said.

Following Reyes' presentation, Rev. John Evans of the First Christian Church said he still has some concerns.

"This seems like really exciting stuff," he said. "For me the two big issues have always been safety and waste."

Reyes stressed uranium recycling and new waste management technologies as viable answers to these problems, though he conceded the facilities needed to process and store new nuclear waste do not exist in the U.S.

"It's just too rosy," said Jeanne Raymond of Corvallis. "They never actually admit that there are problems with the waste. If they would just come clean with it - that's what bothers me."

About 50 people attended Monday's Corvallis City Club meeting. The club endeavors to bring a broad range of people together to talk about issues and ideas that are important to the health and well being of the community.

For details and a schedule of upcoming discussions, go to the City Club website, www.cityclubofcorval lis.org.