Five states named possible hosts for nuclear innovation sites

The Department of Energy on Tuesday named Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho as possible sites for building modernization campuses to improve the nation’s nuclear power production capabilities on Tuesday. The campuses are designed to strengthen and modernize the U.S.’s nuclear fuel cycle, officials said.

Officials said they reviewed applications for the program from more than half of the 50 states. The campuses will attract significant investment, expand domestic manufacturing, and provide thousands of new high-paying jobs, according to the statement. The proposed campuses have the potential to attract as much as $50 billion in capital investment and generate up to $10 billion in state and local tax revenue, while creating as many as 25,000 jobs, according to the Department of Energy.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published an analysis from a former U.S. Department of Energy official saying the plan could break the United States’ nuclear gridlock. But the writer, Vincent Ialenti, added that the program relies on an unusually aggressive timeline that could potentially backfire.

The selected states have a variety of nuclear infrastructure. Currently, Louisiana and Tennessee both have two active nuclear plants, while Oklahoma, Utah, and Idaho have none. Idaho and Tennessee both have one planned reactor, and Tennessee and Utah each have one site under construction. Tennessee also had an unfinished nuclear plant near Hartsville, about an hour away from Nashville, that was recently destroyed. The Tennessee Valley Authority blew up the landmark 540-foot cooling tower less than a year ago after it sat unused for over five decades.