Two western states are top contenders to take on a role in storing nuclear waste, and, in return, receive federal support to develop new nuclear technologies.
The Department of Energy named five finalists this week to host “nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses”: Idaho, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
“These campuses will be massive generators of economic growth, create thousands of high-paying jobs, and be crucial to unleashing America’s nuclear renaissance,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “The innovative concept is a direct result of President Trump’s leadership and ambitious directives to restore the domestic nuclear fuel cycle and get America’s nuclear industry growing again.”
The campuses would include facilities to manage the final disposition of spent nuclear fuel, but could also mean other nuclear-related development, such as power plants, fuel processing centers or even nuclear-powered data centers. Pairing waste storage with nuclear energy could have made the opportunity more attractive to states.
“I think the idea is that a nuclear waste storage facility creates very few jobs; you put the stuff there and you walk away. But these other facilities could create a lot of jobs and economic activity,” said Michael Gerrard, who directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
DOE estimates the sites could attract up to $50 billion in investment and create nearly 25,000 jobs. The agency received 28 applications from 26 states.
The voluntary approach also marks a shift in the country’s decades-long effort to find a permanent home for roughly 95,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, which is currently stored at dozens of temporary sites.
“Places are much more likely to go along with a nuclear waste site or any other kind of facility like that, if they volunteer to take it rather than having it crammed down their throats,” Gerrard said.
For years, the federal government planned to bury the waste deep underground at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the project has stalled because of opposition from local communities, Tribes and elected officials.
“Nevada has made clear for decades that forcing a state to become a nuclear dumping ground does not work,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “Instead, we must move forward with a process grounded in the consent of the communities that would be impacted. The selection of five potential states to host nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses is a critical first step in this process, but we have a long way to go.”
The search for a long-term solution is becoming more urgent as interest in nuclear power grows, driven in part by the rapid expansion of data centers.
Some Mountain West officials — including in Wyoming and northwest Colorado — have floated the idea that storing nuclear waste could provide an economic boost as the coal industry declines.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
