Radiant Industries has scrapped its proposal to build a nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility outside the Natrona County town of Bar Nunn and announced it plans to build “its first mass-produced Kaleidos microreactor” facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, “on a Manhattan Project site.”
The announcement came Monday afternoon in the form of a letter-to-the-editor from Radiant Senior Director of Operations Matt Wilson and a press release announcing the company’s new focus on building the facility in Tennessee. The company cited Wyoming’s decades-long ban on storing spent nuclear fuel waste.
“Our decision came down to regulatory certainty,” Wilson said. “Our plan was to build our nuclear generators in the Cowboy State, using Wyoming-mined uranium, send them to customers (like our troops at remote bases), and bring them back for refueling, with the used fuel being safely and temporarily stored in above-ground containers at our factory.”
Wyoming lawmakers made a narrow exception to the state ban in 2022 to accommodate TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear plant being built near Kemmerer. That exception allows nuclear power plants operating in the state to “temporarily” store their own radioactive waste. But it doesn’t allow waste from nuclear power plants outside the state.
Nuclear energy supporters have backed, without success, several proposals in recent years to make more exceptions to accommodate other nuclear waste storage proposals, such as Radiant’s. A legislative committee tabled such a measure in July.
“Radiant was only seeking to safely and temporarily store used fuel from Wyoming-built reactors returned from deployment,” Wilson wrote. “Sadly, Wyoming’s law currently does not accommodate that model.”
California-based Radiant also faced significant opposition within Bar Nunn and beyond, mostly due to its plan to store spent nuclear fuel at the manufacturing facility — which would have been located close to Casper, Wyoming’s second-largest city. Though the company found many supporters, as well as many others who were on the fence seeking details and assurances regarding safety, a group formed to oppose Radiant’s Bar Nunn proposal and began collecting signatures.
“Bar Nunn does not want nuclear waste,” Midwest Republican Rep. Bill Allemand told a crowd of about 200 in July during a meeting he organized in Bar Nunn. “We want manufacturing. We would love for Radiant to come here and manufacture and put the waste somewhere else.”
Retired Wyoming uranium miner Wayne Heili, who recently held a “nuclear 101” presentation at Casper College and generally supports nuclear energy proposals in the state, told WyoFile he is disappointed.
The Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, he said, “had an opportunity earlier this year to move something forward, and they didn’t. That left Radiant looking at uncertainty.
“It’s a sad outcome for business development in Wyoming,” Heili added. “That’s the legacy of nuclear, though. No matter where you are, somebody’s going to show some concern.”
Green River Republican Sen. Scott Heiner, who co-chairs the Interim Minerals Committee, said Radiant pressured lawmakers to move too quickly to change state law to accommodate its plans, noting that most lawmakers only learned of the company’s proposal earlier this year.
“They’ve made their decision before we’ve had a chance to go through the whole legislative cycle,” Heiner told WyoFile on Monday. “We took public testimony, we tabled the decision until later, and they’ve decided to go.”
Heiner added, “They’ve held that over our head for the whole time: ‘If you don’t approve this, then we’re going to go to Tennessee.’ Well, something that huge, you don’t rush it.”
Let Tennessee have the Radiant Project, Wyoming is not missing out on a great opportunity. Radiant’s design was not even approved or fully tested, nor was it well presented or thought out. Also having spent nuclear waste stored next to neighborhoods and towns is not a good idea. What about security? And driving these small nuclear reactors around on Wyoming small highways and larger highways also seems suspect and not well thought out. Wyoming has a lot more to offer than becoming a the nuclear waste site, reprocessing and manufacturing center for the country. “God Bless Wyoming and Keep it Wild”
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus strikes again. That’s what my political Geiger Counter led me to conclude afield of this article’s reporting .
Another 21st century progressive economic opportunity squandered. No surprise . The world wants next generation small modular nuclear reactors, but the Wyoming Freedom Caucus want you to pay us to make cast iron coal-fired potbelly stoves.
Once coal mining withers away and the beef market crashes, all Wyoming will have left to sell to the outside world is cultural tourism. Come to visit the Dark Ages lords and peasants’ hamlets and stay for the Stone Age flintknapping and other aboriginal arts and crafts.
Coal mining withering away Dewey? Apparently you haven’t heard that convicted felon Donald Trump along with Governor Gordon, Barrasso, Lummis and Hageman are bring back the glory days of coal mining in Wyoming. It will be 400 million tons a year again in the blink of an eye. It’s going to be so good in fact, that Wyoming’s congressional delegation passed Rump’s Big Beautiful Bill which cut the federal coal royalty rate costing Wyoming fifty million dollars a year.
Good riddance to Radiant Energy and their unproven micro reactor manufacturing facilities in Wyoming. This is great news for not only Bar Nunn, Casper and Natrona County but also for Wyoming. The citizens of Wyoming for decades have overwhelmingly opposed the storage of deadly, high level radioactive wastes in Wyoming. Just like the TerraPower nuclear reactor planned for Kemmerer, our Governor and a handful of greedy legislators the likes of Larsen and Cooper wanted to shove this unproven technology and project down our throats without asking the citizens of Wyoming if they wanted deadly high level radioactive wastes stored indefinitely in Wyoming. I hope Wyoming’s top elected officials and those in the legislature like Larsen and Cooper are paying attention to the will of the people to oppose developments that are detrimental to our safety, environment and quality of life in Wyoming such as Kyle True’s gravel mining on Casper Mountain, wind turbines and the boondoggle Pronghorn H2 Wind Project. Those of us who truly care about this beautiful state are rising up, protesting and speaking out and we will not remain silent!
Nuclear, small nuclear reactors, and nuclear waste are by far the most environmentally sound choice for energy. Nuclear is 95%efficient. ALL including wind and solar are 35% efficient or less. Your claims are unfounded and just ridiculous. Do some research.
Oh by the way, the US Navy runs a fleet of nuclear powered ships and subs. There are 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers and a classified number of submarines, and even a few heavy cruisers were deployed. All run on small nuclear reactors. The US Navy has an unbroken streak of 5400 YEARS of accident free nuclear Navy operations .
The small reactors used by the Navy were actually pioneered and developed one state west of us, in Idaho, at the Naval reactors facility, a nuclear engineering complex near Arco that is essential to nuclear research. It has long had a storage facility for spent fuel. Over 50,000 workers and military personnel have passed thru the Idaho National Laboratory since the mid-1950’s. I feel sure there has been a lot of nuclear logisitical traffic traversing Wyoming on its way to/from the Idaho atomic reservation in the past 70 years.
If that helps anyone in Wyoming to broaden their perspective on the small nuke powerplant issue… Idaho has been there ; done that.
What a missed opportunity for the State of Wyoming. There is a nuclear renaissance taking place, and being at the forefront of it could become a lasting legacy for the State. This industry could take over from the coal work as coal slowly winds down. The fear for nuclear is unfortunately overhyped and these people have very little risk to their lives with this fuel storage. Many, and I mean many of Wyoming residents have lost out some incredible jobs.
This isnt a renaissance, it’s a literal power grab by Big Tech.
For generations now, nuclear has been deemed unsafe and mothballed. If it hasnt been safe enough to help the general public with cheaper energy, the Billionaire elite certainly don’t need it for their global digital control grid.
I’m not sure where you get your info, but what has kept nuclear down is fear mongering and over regulation.
Richard, I said “if”.
We have been told for generations its not safe when it would have been massive gift to every American families budget to have cheap electricity.
Now we are told it is safe when the main recipients nationwide will be Big Tech data centers
No one should support these power plants regardless of their safety due to the beneficiaries of the electricity and what they are using it for.
Small nuclear reactors have been safely powering 100s of submarines and ships for over 50 years.
Good\safe enough for the Military Industrial Complex and Big Tech, but not for to lower the average Americans electric bill for the last 40+ years.
When Rep. Bill Allemand is involved, you have a guaranteed amateur hour. But hey, didn’t he get pickup truck prairie dog shooting legalized. We reap what we sow…
As usual…a day late and a dollar short. The one outside Kemmerer? It’ll never be built. There’s nobody here to work at a grocery store let alone build that. We’ve spent so many decades luring retired people here and neglecting everyone else that now….there’s no one left. There’s no where to even live. No surprises here. Good thing they banned porn from the libraries?? 😅