CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — West Virginia has withdrawn from a federal nuclear energy initiative after concerns about the potential handling of spent nuclear fuel at a proposed site in Boone County.
Just weeks ago, Gov. Patrick Morrisey called the state’s participation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus initiative a major opportunity to attract nuclear development.
“It means we are at the table with respect to attracting nuclear here to West Virginia,” Morrisey said at the time. “And we’re now well positioned to work with the DOE and the private sector toward a potential hosting agreement.”
That hosting agreement did not happen. The state later withdrew from the initiative amid questions about spent nuclear fuel. An earlier state proposal identified the former Hobet mine site in Boone County as one possible location.
Boone County Commissioner Jeff Petry said local leaders had not been contacted about potential development at the site.
“We had had no correspondence with those folks regarding any potential development on that Hobet site,” Petry said.
News of the proposal prompted concerns last week, with residents and officials asking whether the site could be used for nuclear waste. In a social media post, the governor’s spokesperson said Morrisey would not allow nuclear waste and would make sure future state actions and letters reflected that position.
State Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the withdrawal should not necessarily end West Virginia’s pursuit of nuclear development. However, he said a project of that scale should involve local and state stakeholders from the beginning.
“I think that there, this should have been a team approach from the start,” Tarr said. “And why that did not happen, I can’t say, because I don’t know.”
Tarr said decisions with major impacts on communities should not be handled in secrecy or driven by who receives credit.
Petry said he is not ruling out future nuclear development at the Hobet site, but he wants transparency before any proposal moves forward.
“I think the beginning point would be the overall being totally open with the overall scope of the project,” Petry said. “What it’s going to include, how that’s going to impact surrounding communities, how it’s going to impact our citizens and things of that nature.”