The Department of Energy is working with the state of Utah on finalizing an agreement to place a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus there, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said during a House hearing Wednesday.
Wright provided a brief update on DOE’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, which the agency has been rather tight-lipped on. He was responding to a question by Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah) during the House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s DOE fiscal 2027 budget request hearing.
Wright said DOE is in the process of reviewing the responses from 28 states it has received for its solicitation, but claimed that Utah provided an “outstanding” application for the nuclear campus. He added that Utah had the government, business climate, geography and public support, making it primed for the proposed campus.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with that [the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus] but I can say without reservation, Utah will be a major player in the future of nuclear energy and the future of geothermal energy and the future of oil production and the future of gas production and the future of coal production,” Wright said to Kennedy.
“Utah is an energy powerhouse,” Wright finished.
DOE’s nuclear lifecycle campus, issued Jan. 28, is the Donald Trump administration’s approach to garner states’ interest in potentially hosting spent fuel storage or disposal facilities, Wright said. The proposed campuses would also support capabilities of the full nuclear fuel cycle, such as fuel fabrication, enrichment and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
Utah, which does not have an operating nuclear plant, has been seeking to invest in nuclear power under Gov. Spencer Cox (R). The state recently selected Holtec to deploy its SMR-300 for the Green River Nuclear Project in Emery County, Utah.
Utah submitted its response to DOE about the nuclear lifecycle campus and applied to host it at Tooele County, Utah. Cox said the county possesses unique qualities that allow it to be the ideal spot for the lifecycle campus.
Tooele County was previously at the center of a decade-long battle over a proposed storage facility for high-level nuclear waste by Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear companies.
Though the state does not have any operating nuclear reactors, it is home to EnergySolutions, a major nuclear waste management company. It also hosts the White Mesa Mill, the only operating conventional uranium mill in the country.