BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal officials are taking public comments on a plan to build a 16.5-mile (27-kilometer) powerline at an eastern Idaho nuclear site as part of a cybersecurity effort to bolster protections for the nation’s electric grid.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it’s taking comments through June 21 on the plan to build the powerline at the 890-square-mile (2,300-square-kilometer) federal site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory.
Officials say the proposed 138-kilovolt powerline will make it easier to conduct experiments at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Power Grid Test Bed.
The Idaho National Laboratory contains one of the United States’ primary cybersecurity facilities that uses the existing power grid at the site for experiments to make electric grids around the U.S. more secure from potential hackers.
