Gov. Mark Gordon took aim at the further-right Wyoming Freedom Caucus on Oct. 14, accusing them of what he called “Club No” tactics concerning a California-based clean energy company’s abandonment of plans to build a factory for portable nuclear microreactors near Bar Nuun.
Radiant Industries would’ve shipped the microreactors they created to customers for use elsewhere, but the spent fuel created by that process would’ve come back to Wyoming for storage in the state after use.
Many people who’ve spoken in opposition to the project were concerned about the transportation of nuclear waste, as well as the spent fuel being stored on site. But others saw it as an economic boon to the area and the state.
“‘Club No’ has ushered in a new culture of no matter who began or who commenced it, we’re against it,” Gordon wrote in a press release. “That is not the way Wyoming became the great state it is. We aren’t even following President Trump's lead.”
He added, “Wyoming should not be held back by fear. We should be pioneers. We should be the first state companies turn to when they want regulatory clarity, bold infrastructure, and a partner for innovation. The Trump Administration’s energy agenda gave us the opening; this microreactor project fits that agenda. Given a chance, if we had been willing to work together, no problem is unsolvable for Wyoming.”
Gordon’s salvo came after an executive at Radiant Industries wrote in a letter to the editor published in multiple Wyoming papers earlier this week that the company is switching up plans to build the facility in Natrona County, Wyoming in favor of a Manhattan Project site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
“At the end of the day, our decision came down to regulatory certainty. Wyoming law currently allows spent fuel to be stored only at operating reactor sites,” wrote Matt Wilson, Radiant’s senior director of operations.
In 2022, the state Legislature passed HB0131 - Nuclear power generation and storage-amendments in anticipation of the still in-process TerraPower nuclear plant in Kemmerer. Lawmakers have been considering regulations that would allow Radiant to move forward, but those regulations remain under discussion.
In a press release published to social media on July 24, the state Freedom Caucus decried the idea of being “a dumping ground for nuclear waste from other states.”
“California billionaires insist on saddling our landscapes with their windmills, their solar panels, and now their radioactive casks,” the caucus press release reads. “We support homegrown energy, not out-of-state waste subsidized … by taxpayer dollars.”
Wyoming Public Radio has a request for comment out to a member of the state Freedom Caucus in Natrona County and will update the story with any response.
But Bar Nuun Mayor Peter Boyer said in an interview that the change-up will cost his community.
“ The opportunity that was going to be there being lost is not great,” said Boyer. “We've lost a huge opportunity with Radiant. I think there's a good time to reflect about how things went with this and a lot of the vitriol and the hatred and maybe kind of do some self-reflection in it. And the other side of that is, for Radiant – I wish them the best.”
Boyer said the charged public conversations around the plans for the factory came from community members as well as state lawmakers in the caucus, but that lawmakers hold “a vast majority of the responsibility” for the “vitriol” during discussions, in his view.
If the caucus had studied the subject more, he added, things might have worked out differently. And Boyer said he wonders what will happen to similar nuclear projects planned for communities like Kemmerer and Gillette.
“ The question is, ‘Are they gonna do the same thing to BWXT [in Gillette]?’” he said. “Are state legislators gonna go to local communities and tell local communities how to run their communities? Are they going to go and try to influence people to vote a certain way and feel a certain way about these [plans] instead of viewing them as they are?”
Public meetings about the project have drawn mixed reactions all summer.
While some members of the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee expressed excitement about the legislation at a meeting in July, Rep. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest), a member of the Freedom Caucus, remained a staunch “no.”
When asked by Sen. Cooper (R-Ten Sleep) whether the group had a responsibility to address Pres. Trump’s nuclear-related executive orders, Allemand emphasized his responsibility to the people of House District 58 in Natrona County.
“ I took an oath of office to protect those people, to protect their health and safety,” he said. “If I ever voted for this, I would not be protecting their health or their safety in my mind.”
Lee-Ann Newquist, who lives in town, said the project had become divisive, with any mention of nuclear being like “pouring gasoline on a fire.”
“ We have not been granted the ability to make choices, voice concerns for our own lives and we've not been given a vote as this nuclear agenda is being pushed upon us,” she said.
Ken Hume lives on a back road in Bar Nunn that’s about “as close to this new facility as you can get,” in his words. He grew up in the shadow of Oak Ridge, where Radiant now plans to site its project, and told lawmakers he was in favor of Radiant’s plan.
“ I have no fear of Radiant going in close to my home, absolutely none,” he said.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the type of dry cask storage Radiant would’ve used for on-site storage is considered safe.
Radiant plans to test its Kaleidos design at the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory next year, with the goal of getting the technology licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission before 2030.
Sen. Ogden Driskill (R-Devils Tower), a former Wyoming Senate president and self-described “ghost of Christmas past” in modern Wyoming politics, wrote on Facebook that he viewed the Freedom Caucus’s attitude toward energy projects like Radiant’s as “putting us on a path of guaranteed failure. All the while dismantling essential government services by strangulation.”
At an interim committee meeting in September, the company told state lawmakers that it anticipated creating up to 10 jobs next year for construction, 75 jobs by 2028 and 250 jobs by 2035.
The Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee is set to discuss nuclear spent fuel storage at its meeting on Oct. 20.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
