A southeast Washington economic development organization plans to set up a nonprofit subsidiary to help develop clean energy businesses in a region with deep ties to nuclear power.

Details of the plan by the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC) still must be worked out, according to the Karl Dye, the group’s CEO.

Washington’s Tri-Cities area consists of the cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick, located near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station nuclear reactor.  Richland also is home to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. All these have made the area a major science and engineering center.

The nonprofit TRIDEC announced recently it will create a nonprofit subsidiary called the Energy Forward Alliance to push the development of clean energy technologies. TRIDEC has not yet developed a timetable for getting the venture fully functional or determining its specific goals, Dye told NetZero Insider.

“The goal is to find the right leader and have that leader be part of the planning process,” Dye said. TRIDEC hopes to hire a leader and set up a board of directors this year, he said.

The effort is separate from a U.S. Department of Energy initiative to attract clean energy companies to establish a presence in unused parts of southern Hanford adjacent to Richland. That effort will be discussed with potentially interested businesses Sept. 22 in Richland.