RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Five states could store nuclear waste under a new Trump administration plan, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Tuesday.
The proposal could give a boost to the nuclear energy sector, which in the United States has stalled for decades. The latest push for nuclear energy development comes as the government works to step up energy production amid the boom of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, which require significant energy and water usage.
Both Democrats and Republicans have embraced nuclear energy development in recent years as demand rises. President Donald Trump has been supportive of nuclear development, with the new project being the latest effort to boost the industry. Opponents, however, have pointed to challenges in storing radioactive waste as a key issue with the energy source.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Energy and governors for the five states for comment via email.
The Trump administration’s plan would allow states to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses that include sites for nearly 100,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication and the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, the DOE announced in a statement.
They could attract up to $50 billion in private investment, create 25,000 new jobs and generate $10 billion in state and local tax revenue, according to the DOE.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 26 states applied but that five states— Utah , Tennessee , Oklahoma , Louisiana , and Idaho —were selected as potential host states. All five states are led by Republican governors.
“These campuses will be massive generators of economic growth, create thousands of high-paying jobs, and be crucial to unleashing America’s nuclear renaissance. The innovative concept is a direct result of President Trump’s leadership and ambitious directives to restore the domestic nuclear fuel cycle and get America’s nuclear industry growing again,” he said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox wrote in a statement that the project would “drive affordable, abundant power across our country.”
“Through Operation Gigawatt, Utah is developing the entire nuclear lifecycle, from fuel production to advanced reactor deployment—strengthening our national security while helping secure America's energy independence,” he wrote. “This campus will accelerate that work.”
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt wrote in a statement that he looks “forward to working with communities across our state to make this campus a reality,” touting the project as a “chance to add nuclear to our energy abundance agenda.”
The plan is a “reflection of the difficulties that have gone into finding permanent storage” for nuclear waste, Mark James, director of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the University of Vermont, told Newsweek .
There are still many details that will need to be worked out, noting that any changes may have to go through Congress, which previously designated Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only permanent storage location in the U.S.
“Finding willing partners at the state level who are interested in the economic development around storage, plus there are opportunities for reprocessing of waste, for new fuel rod generation,” he said. “Something needs to be done with waste issue to match up with the federal government’s attention and financial support that have been given to restarting old conventional shuttered reactors as well as supporting the growth of the small modular reactor and other reactor models.”
The Department of Energy is responsible for disposing of more than 90,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants in a “permanent geologic repository,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). But they have not been able to construct such a facility due to a divide among lawmakers.
Each year, 2,000 metric tons of spent fuel are generated in the U.S., according to the DOE, comparing that amount to less than half the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
“The nation’s spent nuclear fuel is initially stored in steel-lined concrete pools surrounded by water. It’s later removed from the pools and placed into dry storage casks that are made of steel and concrete or other materials used for protective shielding,” a DOE fact page on nuclear waste reads.
It is stored at more than 70 sites across 35 states.
Some countries, such as France, recycle their nuclear waste, but the U.S. does not. President Jimmy Carter imposed a moratorium on nuclear reprocessing due to nonproliferation concerns, and reprocessing sites have not reopened despite the moratorium's expiration, according to the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure.
The U.S. does not have a commercial processing facility, which would need to be licensed, James said.
Reprocessing is part of the Trump administration’s plan, which James said is “trying to tackle multiple issues in the multiple obstacles in the nuclear power development cycle through a single plan.”
“If you could shrink the total amount of volume, that then requirement that then shrinks the need for storage,” he said.
He noted there are risks attached to that and that reprocessing must be done “under the highest level of security protections.” He cautioned that the Trump administration “has often prioritized speed against balancing against environmental protections.”
He said it is worth “making sure that you're not prioritizing speed over public health and safety, given that the risks attached to these materials are not measured in years or generations but on the lines of eons.”
The issue of managing nuclear waste has been a sticking point among lawmakers.
A proposed long-term solution was planned for Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but that plan has stalled amid opposition. Politico reported that...
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