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Dear Gillette,
I urge Gov. Mark Gordon to approve BWXT’s grant request for $100 million from Wyoming’s Large Project Energy Matching Fund. The funds would be used to build a $300 million TRISO nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in Gillette.
TRISO fuel is a small enriched uranium pellet, the size of a poppyseed, that is housed in a carbon and ceramic shell that prevents the release of radioactive fission products. Because TRISO fuel can withstand higher temperatures than traditional nuclear fuel, these pellets are very safe because they never leak out of the carbon and ceramic shell.
Another factor, BWXT will not produce or store any high-level radioactive waste or spent nuclear fuel. Nor will BWXT be licensed to produce or store high-level radioactive material.
Wyoming missed the boat when the legislature dropped the ball on approving an amendment to a current law that requires nuclear waste to be stored at the site where it was produced. The amendment would have allowed storage of nuclear waste at a nuclear manufacturing facility as long as it follows other Wyoming nuclear waste storage requirements.
Radiant Industries was only going to store waste from microreactors that it produced after they had been deployed and run their course and returned to Wyoming, where they were produced. Radiant stated multiple times that it had no intention of storing any nuclear waste from any other producer. As a result, Wyoming lost the opportunity for a generational economic game changer in the state when Radiant stated it was going to Tennessee, where the population had a better understanding of nuclear energy production and waste.
Let’s not lose the opportunity to build BWXT’s TRISO facility in Wyoming. Losing this opportunity will cost Wyoming its place as a leader in energy production and as a leader in the future of safe, secure and abundant energy in our country.
Why is nuclear energy so important right now? Because the world is looking more and more to AI, and big data processing centers which take enormous amounts of energy. Wyoming can be at the forefront of producing this energy. We just need to quit being afraid of our own shadow.
Kaycee Wiita
Casper
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