Tennessee's bid to host a multi-facility nuclear campus with on-site nuclear waste storage faces one fewer competitor after West Virginia withdrew its name from the mix this month.
Tennessee is now one of five states − along with Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Utah − vying to host a what the federal government is calling a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, a proposed network of facilities that would support everything from the uranium enrichment needed to power plants across the U.S. to storing nuclear waste.
From the Manhattan Project to the present day, Tennessee has played a key role in developing nuclear technology. New nuclear campus facilities, according to the state, could attract up to $50 billion in investment and create thousands
of jobs.
Where would a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus be in Tennessee?
Tennessee is home to two nuclear plants that are run by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has plans to bring others online by the 2030s.
Oak Ridge, about a 30-minute drive west of Knoxville, is the most likely spot in the state for a major new nuclear site. It’s home to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory − a major player in the federal research ecosystem − and the Y-12 National Security Complex, which stewards the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
More than 150 nuclear businesses have operations in the "Secret City." And TVA, the nation's largest public power provider, hopes Oak Ridge will become the site of a first-of-its-kind, fully operational advanced reactor by the 2030s.
Does Tennessee store nuclear waste?
Federal law requires the government to consider only Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel. Congress would have to change the rules to allow Tennessee to store nuclear waste permanently.
The federal government designated Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site decades ago, but Nevada officials have fought the plan through litigation and political opposition. As a result, the U.S. still has no permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel.
Both of TVA's nuclear facilities in Tennessee − the Watts Bar plant in Rhea County and the Sequoyah plant in Hamilton County− store nuclear waste on-site temporarily. Additionally, low-level radioactive waste is buried in Oak Ridge landfills.
What's next in the nuclear campus selection process?
The five finalists for the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus and more than 20 other states told the federal government about their interests and abilities to host the facilities before the group was narrowed down over the summer. West Virginia was added to the mix as a finalist in September before bowing out the following month.
Discussions between the five states and the federal Department of Energy are ongoing, and Tennessee expects its talks to continue through the fall, state leaders said in a one-pager about the new facilities.
Competition for the nuclear facilities isn't zero-sum: More than one state could receive a designation from the federal government, according to information presented during the proposal process.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: mariah.franklin@knoxnews.com. Signal: mariahfranklin.01
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Could Tennessee store more nuclear waste? Its bid faces one less rival
