Wyoming Communities Seek More Time to Weigh Nuclear Energy Expansion as Federal Push Accelerates
Why It Matters
Wyoming is already home to a nuclear power plant under construction, and the state could soon become a destination for high-level nuclear waste storage if the federal government fails to establish a centralized repository. How Wyoming communities navigate that prospect — balancing economic opportunity against long-standing concerns about radioactive materials — will shape the state’s energy future for generations.
The stakes are particularly high for tribal communities and rural towns with memories of uranium mining’s boom-and-bust cycles and the environmental damage that followed. Many residents say they are not opposed to nuclear energy outright, but they want meaningful time to weigh in before decisions are made.
What Happened
The University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources, the Ruckelshaus Institute, and the Wyoming Energy Authority recently co-hosted a nuclear energy forum focused on how to educate and empower communities to engage with the growing industry. The forum drew attention to a fundamental tension: Wyoming’s political and business leadership is actively recruiting nuclear developers, while many communities say the process is moving too fast.
TerraPower — backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates — is already building its first advanced Natrium liquid sodium-cooled power plant outside Kemmerer and is considering additional plants in Wyoming. Other companies have explored nuclear microreactor manufacturing facilities in the state, which could involve storing spent fuel from portable units deployed worldwide and then returned to Wyoming.
State officials, including Gov. Mark Gordon, the Wyoming Energy Authority, and the Wyoming Business Council, have been eager to connect Wyoming’s uranium mining industry with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses initiative. The Energy Authority told the DOE that Wyoming “welcomes the opportunity to partner with DOE, national laboratories and private industry to strengthen the domestic nuclear fuel cycle,” while stopping short of expressing interest in nuclear waste storage.
By the Numbers
- TerraPower announced its Kemmerer site selection in November 2021, and lawmakers amended the state’s nuclear waste storage ban just months later in 2022.
- The Idaho National Laboratory has tested more than 52 experimental reactors over the years, according to Christine King, director of INL’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation program.
- The federal government has spent more than 40 years attempting to secure community buy-in for a centralized U.S. nuclear waste repository — without success.
- Radiant Industries withdrew its proposed microreactor manufacturing facility from Natrona County in November after failing to secure assurances that Wyoming might further loosen its waste storage restrictions.
- Multiple legislative attempts to amend or repeal Wyoming’s nuclear waste storage ban have been introduced since 2022 — all have failed.
Zoom Out
Wyoming’s nuclear debate is unfolding against a backdrop of what industry advocates are calling a global nuclear energy revival. The state is uniquely positioned, with an active uranium mining sector, a business-friendly government, and available land. Wyoming’s largest electric utility has already moved away from wind and solar in its long-term planning, signaling growing interest in reliable baseload power sources like nuclear.
But the path forward is complicated by history. Lax regulations in past decades led to radioactive contamination of soils and water across the American West, contributing to elevated cancer rates — including on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, where impacts remain unresolved. Uranium mining’s boom-and-bust legacy left ghost towns across the region, deepening skepticism.
Jennifer Richter, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, who has studied community acceptance of nuclear facilities, said the U.S. has a “much longer and more complicated history with nuclear” than countries like Finland or Sweden, which have successfully sited permanent waste repositories. She warned that rushing communities into decisions has historically backfired and that meaningful engagement is a years-long process.
“How to reckon with that history is actually what a lot of communities are asking,” Richter said, “rather than just going forward.”
Big Wind Carpenter, a Northern Arapaho tribal member and tribal engagement coordinator for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, echoed that sentiment at the forum. “There’s all this risk, and we’re trying to make sure that those risks are minimized,” Carpenter said. “What is the benefit for the community? I think those are good discussions to start to happen.”
What’s Next
TerraPower’s Natrium plant near Kemmerer remains under construction, and the company’s interest in additional Wyoming sites keeps the nuclear waste storage question firmly on the table. State officials will continue engaging with the DOE’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses initiative, though the Energy Authority has been careful to frame that engagement as support for the domestic nuclear fuel cycle rather than an endorsement of waste storage.
Further legislative attempts to modify Wyoming’s nuclear waste storage ban are likely when the legislature reconvenes. Community forums and tribal consultations are expected to play a growing role as developers eye additional projects across the state. Whether Wyoming ultimately opens the door wider to the industry — and its radioactive byproducts — will depend heavily on how well officials and developers earn the trust of local communities still processing the industry’s complicated past.
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