West Virginia’s top energy official says a bid to be designated a federal nuclear hub includes an array of possibilities.
“The way I explain is, if you have the nuclear buffet in front of you of every aspect, each state’s going to go in and pick certain things off that buffet and say ‘This is what we’re going to do. This is what we want to do. This is our strength. This is what we think we can delve into,'” said Nick Preservati, director of the state Office of Energy.
Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that West Virginia is now among six states identified by the U.S. Department of Energy as potential hosts for Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.
The integrated hubs are designed to support the entire nuclear cycle, including fuel enrichment, advanced reactor deployment and used material reprocessing.
“What they’re looking for are states to embrace very front end to the very back end and everything in between on nuclear energy. That’s willing to do it all, or not necessarily do it all,” Preservati said on MetroNews Talkline.
The announcement does not necessarily mean West Virginia has been given the ultimate go-ahead, but the state has a strong shot.
Twenty-six states applied for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, submitting a total of 28 applications.
The other finalists include Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Each of those states has provided an outline of what it intends to do, often connecting the federal initiative with existing nuclear structures or programs within the state.
The U.S. Department of Energy envisions the campuses to be deployed quickly, with initial facilities online in the 2027 timeframe.
Successful sites will likely co-locate energy-intensive industries, such as AI data centers, a booming sector that also draws intense public reaction.
And one of the central components involves the management of long-term nuclear waste, designed to safely isolate radioactive material.
Preservati said each state will have different ways of approaching the possibility. West Virginia will tailor its bid to its strengths, he said.
“We have a lot of rare earth elements in West Virginia. We have a lot of silica and other alloys that can be used in manufacturing alongside with our met coal to do manufacturing for the supply chain,” he said.
“We have opportunities for research at our universities, microreactors at the universities. We have opportunities for generation and co-location of manufacturing on site with that. There’s all kinds of opportunities and job creation throughout the state, and it’s a tremendous opportunity.”
If West Virginia is chosen, Preservati said, the placement of the nuclear campus includes options.
“It doesn’t have to be one location. It can be statewide. It can be multiple locations. It can be one location,” he said.
He indicated the geography is still to be determined by who volunteers.
“We’re looking at the communities, counties, etc. that want to engage in these opportunities, want to take advantage of them, to reach out to us and say ‘We’d like to house some manufacturing here. We’d like to reprocess things here. We would like a reactor at our university, etc.
“So it’s it’s a lot of work to go forward, but it’s a tremendous opportunity and one we will never have, I don’t think ever again, to stand up a nuclear industry in West Virginia.”
The initiative could be a significant opportunity for West Virginia, Senator Brian Helton, R-Fayette, said on Radio Roundtable on WJLS-AM in the Beckley area.
However, Helton said, “It’s not saying we’re going to get a nuclear power plant. It’s simply saying West Virginia is one of the states under consideration for that in the future.” Asked to put a number on it, he said that if he had to guess, the state is “more than 10 years out in West Virginia of ever seeing that.”
One barrier is cost, he said.
“It’s very expensive,” he said. “So there’s a big number attached to a nuclear plant, even the modular reactor.”
Furthermore dealing with spent fuel would also be a challenge, with Helton saying the state would “just have to come up with a safe way to get rid of the waste.”
West Virginia has signed a memorandum of understanding to become one of the six states under final consideration, although the memorandum has not been publicly released so far. So it’s not yet clear what specifics West Virginia pitched.
The memorandum of understanding establishes a framework for West Virginia and DOE to evaluate potential locations, infrastructure and workforce advantages, as well as engage communities and industry partners about a potential agreement. It does not guarantee that any developments will come to the state.
“I tell people don’t trust me. Listen to what I say and go verify it, because I think everything that I say is verifiable. Everything that we say is verifiable,” Preservati said.
“We’re trying to do what’s right, and if you have questions about it, talk to us. But listen, engage, research, do some of your own, decide for yourself, because just don’t take people’s words for it.”
The other finalists, generally, have publicly detailed the broad outlines and core concepts.
Tennessee, for example, has a web page that includes both its proposal and its memorandum of understanding.
Nevertheless, Tennessee state Senator Heidi Campbell is asking that state’s governor to disclose the location of any new nuclear energy and waste sites. Campbell, a Democrat from Nashville, sent a four-page letter to Gov. Bill Lee, asking for the disclosures.
“You simply can’t make our state a nuclear dumping ground without public awareness, input, and participation,” she wrote in the letter.