The Department of Energy formally selected Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah as potential host states for its Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus initiative.
Last week, Exchange Monitor reported that Utah, Oklahoma and Tennessee were among the top of the list of potential states to be selected for the program. According to DOE’s Tuesday press release, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with those three along with Idaho and Louisiana, continuing to look into opportunities to host one of the campuses.
The MOUs are not binding agreements as the states that choose to continue down the pathway of hosting an innovation campus will sign “hosting agreements” with DOE at a later date, according to the release.
“I’m pleased to announce that after reviewing 28 applications from 26 states, the Energy Department has selected five initial contenders to further explore building Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses,” Wright said in the release. “These campuses will be massive generators of economic growth, create thousands of high-paying jobs, and be crucial to unleashing America’s nuclear renaissance.”
DOE released a solicitation for the innovation campuses in January and received responses from over half of the states by its April 1 deadline. The campus initiative serves as the Donald Trump administration’s attempt to gauge states’ interest in hosting a spent fuel disposal facility and other related facilities. Along with waste storage, campuses could also host uranium enrichment, conversion or nuclear projects.
The potential innovation campuses could draw up to $50 billion in capital investment and generate potentially $10 billion in state and local tax revenue, DOE said. It could also create nearly 25,000 jobs with a campus coming online, DOE added.
The Monitor previously reported that Idaho, Tennessee, Utah and Louisiana responded to DOE’s solicitation.
Oklahoma, a state that currently does not operate a nuclear reactor, in the past year or so has taken up a new interest in nuclear power. The state government ordered for a nuclear feasibility study to be conducted last year and received back its findings in March. The study showed that the state is capable of developing nuclear energy, but it would be a costly alternative compared to natural gas and other renewables.