House Speaker Roger Hanshaw suggested West Virginia erred in withdrawing from consideration for a federal nuclear hub initiative, but he said the state’s potential for nuclear development remains.
“We hope that it’s just a temporary temporary mistake that we can get corrected,” Hanshaw, R-Clay, said on MetroNews Talkline.
“We’re still a perfectly viable, perfectly attractive destination for those industries. We’re going to continue having those conversations with the people who are in a position to bring those installations to West Virginia. I’m sorry that we did what we did. We shouldn’t have, but there are plenty of opportunities to get back on track here.”
Federal officials said the proposed nuclear hubs have the potential to attract up to $50 billion in capital investment, generate as much as $10 billion in state and local tax revenue and create nearly 25,000 jobs with an establishment of a campus.
“We’re comfortable with with energy in West Virginia, but I think you can never go wrong helping people understand what an opportunity looks like,” Hanshaw said.
West Virginia had been one of six states being considered as finalists for the federal government’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses program, a designation for a range of nuclear energy activities from beginning to end.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey, in an initial announcement in early September that West Virginia was a finalist, expressed excitement and said the state had a seat a the table.
The integrated hubs are designed to support the entire nuclear cycle, including fuel enrichment, advanced reactor deployment and used material reprocessing. Because the campuses envision handling nuclear energy from beginning to end, spent fuel is a central aspect.
Last week, after publicly vowing that “West Virginia will not be a dumping ground for nuclear waste,” the Morrisey administration sent a one page letter to the U.S. Department of Energy to opt out of further consideration.
Hanshaw said he had not spoken with the Morrisey administration about the bid, either before West Virginia was named a finalist or after the state withdrew: “I didn’t. I can’t speak for for others in in in the legislature. I can say I did not.”
Other lawmakers said they weren’t in position to question the administration’s final decision, but some also suggested nuclear energy continues to have potential in West Virginia.
“Without knowing the intricacies of this particular deal, I trust the Governor and his team made the right call,” said Delegate Jordan Maynor, R-Raleigh, in response to a MetroNews qauestion.
“Looking forward, West Virginia should be open to every opportunity and competitive edge in the marketplace. Nuclear and all forms of energy are certainly part of our future and should be embraced.”
West Virginia just passed a law in 2022 to reverse its ban on the construction of nuclear power plants.
Hanshaw, who is a lawyer with a Ph.D. in chemistry, said repealing West Virginia’s nuclear-development ban in 2022 was intended to support all forms of energy, including nuclear manufacturing, fuel development and related services.
“When we in the House say we want to support all forms of energy, we mean all forms of energy. Full stop,” he said.
He said potential development partners have been reassured that West Virginia remains open to nuclear-related investment.
“We want to be at that table,” Hanshaw said.
He added, “We have, in fact, said over the last few days to some of those some of those partners who have reached out to us and been in touch with us about what what their future could look like here.
“We’ve reassured all those potential partners that we’re still happy to keep those conversations going because the folks that we were out to attract at the first instance on the first level were people who are involved in manufacturing.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s call-out for the nuclear hubs initiative explicitly asked candidate states to detail how they would handle nuclear waste, used nuclear material and secondary waste streams. The DOE framed waste management as a core function.
West Virginia got in the door with a 48-page presentation submitted in April to the U.S. Department of Energy that laid out ideas for how the state might handle all of that, including the nuclear waste part. The state proposed a phased approach that begins with spent fuel recycling and interim storage before expanding into advanced reactor deployment and manufacturing.
“The interesting thing about the nuclear industry is that the fuel that that that is used to generate nuclear power, unlike burning coal or natural gas, it isn’t fully consumed in the process,” Hanshaw said.
“So there’s a reprocessing step whereby you recharge fuel and then reuse it in a subsequent generating asset. So fuel from one cycle of a nuclear power plant can can be reprocessed, repackaged, and then recycled to run a nuclear another cycle. I’m making this sound a lot simpler than it is.”
State representatives will continue to lay the groundwork for development, he said.
“We’ve already, of course, been in touch with those partners with whom we’ve been talking as a part of our economic recruitment, economic development strategy,” he said.
“We immediately reassured them that no, this is not a this is not a full scale reversal of course on behalf of the State of West Virginia, that there are substantial motivations still here in West Virginia to diversify our economy and to continue to produce energy of all sorts.”