It’s interesting to see Aaron Tilton’s approach to selling Utah officials on his proposed Green River nuclear power plant proposal’s economic use of water:

“Water use in a nuclear power plant is very economic,” Tilton said, calculating the power’s dollar output at $127,569 per million gallons, to agriculture’s $5,080. “The benefits are real in terms of jobs, tax base and labor income.”

The envisioned plant would employ 825, compared with 22,500 farmworkers, while agriculture taps 82 percent of the state’s diverted water. Per million gallons, he said, that’s 50 nuclear-energy jobs to 13 farm jobs.

If approved by state and federal regulators and built by Blue Castle Energy, the plant would use river water rights leased from San Juan and Kane counties.