• Industry leaders see a fertile political environment in the region, but say challenges lie ahead.

 

By Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile.com

IDAHO FALLS—A couple hundred nuclear energy industry officials, along with two western state governors, a Trump administration official and the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gathered Monday at the Idaho National Laboratory’s sprawling 890-square-mile testing center to discuss nuclear power’s future in the West.

In a large, posh tent with clear plastic walls offering views of the surrounding high-plains sagebrush steppe, these leaders, their staff and a gaggle of media gathered for a reception a short drive away from the world’s premier nuclear energy testing ground. 

“We’re standing here, not very far from where [Experimental Breeder Reactor II] proved out the fundamental technology that I believe is ultimately the future for humanity — for energy abundance, reliability and affordability,” Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of nuclear power plant developer Oklo, told the crowd. The success of 1960s-era EBR II was “one of the most phenomenal technological stories in human history and, frankly, one that’s radically under-told and underappreciated.”

After being pushed to the sidelines, nuclear energy technology is back in the spotlight, DeWitte noted. Today’s rush to feed power-hungry artificial intelligence and data computational centers has private investors and governments around the world pouring money into the next generation of nuclear energy, he said. That is already resulting in notable investments in Wyoming, including Bill Gate’s next-generation nuclear project in Kemmerer, but also raising questions about the potential for spent nuclear fuel storage and transportation in the Equality State. 

Here at INL, Oklo and subcontractor Kiewit Nuclear Solutions Co. will build and test the first Aurora Powerhouse — a liquid-sodium-cooled “fast reactor” generating up to 75 megawatts of electricity that backers hope to deploy around the world. Oklo’s nuclear reactor demonstration is among a dozen or so reactor and nuclear fuel tests in queue at INL that advance the industry’s technology and business models, according to INL officials. The lineup includes Radiant Industry’s “portable” Kaleidos microreactor, which the company proposes to mass-produce in Wyoming at a facility outside Bar Nunn. 

Though Radiant’s proposal, along with another in Campbell County, has garnered significant opposition, Gov. Mark Gordon has joined with his counterparts in Idaho and Utah in a declaration of a unified effort to establish the tristate area as the epicenter of America’s nuclear energy resurgence.

“This is what an abundance mentality is all about,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in his opening remarks at the Western Governors’ Association workshop at INL’s Idaho Falls campus later that day. “It’s not Utah versus Idaho versus Wyoming. We’re going to be much stronger if we’re working together, because we have some differences that are important and similarities that are important.”

 

Energy ‘superabundance’ 

As chairman of the WGA this year, Cox launched the Energy Superabundance: Unlocking Prosperity in the West initiative, which focuses on meeting skyrocketing electrical demand by bolstering nuclear energy. Nuclear power generation, Cox suggested, represents the most reliable form of electricity and a viable means of meeting increasing energy demand.

Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, Cox noted, already share infrastructure under utility Rocky Mountain Power, as well as a shared workforce and a similar “mindset” that’s attractive to the industry.

“I would love to have [Oklo] in Utah, and I can’t lie about that, but that’s good for all of us,” Cox said, adding that all three states are already on the industry’s radar.

The Department of Energy’s national laboratory in Idaho is an obvious draw, he noted. In addition to proposed nuclear microreactor manufacturing in Wyoming, TerraPower’s liquid-sodium-cooled “Natrium” nuclear power facility is expected to begin operations in 2030 outside Kemmerer. Rocky Mountain Power has tentatively agreed to take on the power plant and potentially partner with TerraPower to add more Natrium plants in Utah.

“I can just tell you, by signing that MOU together, it’s given this region much more interest from nuclear partners,” Cox said. “They’re seeing this as a game changer, and so they’re coming. I don’t care if they come to Wyoming or they come to Idaho or they come to Utah.”

The tristate initiative has the backing of the Trump administration, which has ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up nuclear licensing and has directed the DOE to have 10 new “large reactors” under construction by 2030 with a goal of adding 300,000 megawatts of nuclear power to the grid by 2050. One megawatt is enough electricity to power about 750 homes.

Part of federal policy leaning toward nuclear energy began during the Biden administration, which named Wyoming and Idaho as part of a Tech Hub within the Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor.

 

Challenges 

Despite enthusiasm among private industry and state and federal officials, there are significant challenges to implementing a nuclear resurgence in the region. 

Several speakers at the WGA event noted that AI and data center developers favor new power generation facilities that are, in a regulatory sense, apart from the shared electrical grid, or “behind the meter.” That complicates the utility regulatory environment and rate structures. Also, the U.S. is still reliant on other nations for nuclear components and several aspects of the fuel supply chain, which will take years to provide domestically. Others noted that the Trump administration’s demands on federal agencies — like fast-tracking and licensing a massive buildout of nuclear power plants — are at odds with recent staff downsizing.

Industry leaders are also worried about a dearth of workers for jobs that require specific training and certifications.

“We know that we need a significantly expanded workforce for the modernization and expansion of the grid,” Deloitte Specialist Executive Bill Abolt said. The nation’s long lull in building nuclear energy has left the industry with skilled experts who are retiring and an empty “pipeline” to replace them, he added. “The people that built the last nuclear power plant didn’t just stick around and wait for the next one.”

Though states have made advancements in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and training, nuclear fields have been a blind spot, several industry officials agreed.

“At some point, you need to figure out how to get Mike Rowe involved,” INL’s Innovation and Technology Manager Chris Lohse said, referring to the television personality who touts the nobility of skilled trades and “dirty” physical labor.

Yet perhaps the industry’s biggest challenge remains its image as a dangerous liability to human health and the environment — a legacy of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, perpetuated in cinema and The Simpsons. Though the WGA event was stacked with those who are certain of the safety of the industry, some noted that local opposition to things like wind farms extends to nuclear energy proposals.

In fact, many residents in Bar Nunn and Gillette — communities that have long supported heavy energy industries — are not convinced they want to welcome nuclear facilities. Campbell County commissioners recently drafted a resolution to solidify their interim stance on the potential for spent nuclear fuel waste storage until putting the question to a public vote in the 2026 election. Until there’s a vote, the commission would remain opposed to such proposals.

“There is a lot of time that’s being spent engaging with communities, local governments and people on the ground who may have been upset about a wind turbine,” National Association of State Energy Officials Chief of Staff Cassie Powers said. “There does need to be some real, honest public engagement to demystify investments in nuclear.”

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.