Utah officials want the state to win a nuclear race.
Not involving nuclear arms, but instead nuclear energy.
The state is among those vying for a potential Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, part of a national move by the U.S. Department of Energy that hopes to advance innovation across the nuclear fuel cycle.
“Utah is well positioned to lead,” Gov. Spencer Cox said at a news conference in Tooele County, a site being promoted for a campus. “We have the talent, we have the institutions and the work ethic to build something that will last for generations.”
The Department of Energy is seeking possible host communities interested in supporting research, development and demonstration activities related to the nuclear lifecycle, including advanced fuel technologies, recycling of used nuclear fuel and long-term fuel management.
Speakers at the news conference listed several potential benefits of such a campus, including the belief that it could, at full buildout, have a long-term economic impact akin to that of Hill Air Force Base by supporting tens of thousands of jobs and generating billions of dollars in economic activity for Utahns.
Among other benefits are possible water-efficient energy technologies that could help protect and restore the Great Salt Lake.
Cox said a campus could help keep energy affordable, strengthen the economy and national security, protect the Great Salt Lake and provide “a future of abundance.”
“Nuclear energy,” he said, “offers something very few resources can: reliable, around-the-clock power with a small land footprint and extremely low emissions. Some advanced designs can also significantly reduce water use compared to traditional generation.”
Tooele County is uniquely suited for an innovation campus, he said. The county’s geology, its arid climate, its existing infrastructure, its distance from major population centers and its people “make it one of the most practical locations for this kind of work,” the governor said.
Nuclear power is “an energy source that America needs more of,” said Utah Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton.
“If we make critical investments now in nuclear power, along with the geothermal power that we can produce in the state, [they] can be dispatchable, base load sources of energy that we need to power our homes, keep our farms in business, run our factories and build the data centers that we need to win the AI race,” he said. “There’s no better place in the country to build a nuclear innovation campus than here in Utah. We have the land, we have the skilled workforce and, quite honestly, we have the grit to get this done.”
Utah Sen. Derrin Owens, R-Fountain Green, said an innovation campus would benefit the entire state. “Many businesses will come, innovators and builders will come to build, and Utah will continue to be strong for generations to come,” he said.
Jared Hamner, Tooele County Council chair, noted that a single nuclear generator can produce the equivalent output of 1.5 million horsepower “with minimal air pollution.”
He vowed to have the county continue to work with the DOE, the governor’s Office, local communities “and anybody that will get this right.”
“We want to work with the right people and have them here — no shortcuts,” Hamner said. “We will not compromise on safety; we will not compromise on the environment. … Every decision made will be the correct one, and we will ferret that out with the right people.”
Cox stressed that nuclear development can be done safely and responsibly because the U.S. has been generating nuclear power, creating nuclear fuel and storing used fuel for decades, and other countries have been using nuclear recycling technology that the U.S. invented.
“Safety,” Cox said, “is non-negotiable.”
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said a trip to the United Kingdom last year confirmed the safety at fuel production and processing facilities.
“There were towns and communities, playgrounds, right next to these facilities,” she said. “The community had grown up around it and it just demonstrated to me that the technologies, the advancements that have come, are so safe that there are communities throughout the world that love having facilities next to them.”
Cox said nuclear energy development “should not be controversial.” The U.S. built the nuclear industry and at one time led the world, and still today nuclear accounts for more than 20 percent of U.S. electricity generation. But the nation for decades has been falling behind China.
With the proper technologies, nuclear fuel recycling can generate more power out of the same resource. Used nuclear fuel still contains about 95 percent of its original energy potential, he said.
The governor noted that an innovation campus would help “Operation Gigawatt,” a plan announced two years ago to more than double Utah’s energy production.
“If we want Utah to remain a place where families can succeed and businesses can grow, energy must be reliable, it must be affordable and it must be available when we need it,” he said.
“Developing a safe, secure location for consolidated fuel management, building on decades of safe storage in this country, while improving efficiency, is critical to advancing our nation’s energy dominance.”