The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that five states, Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho, may serve as host states for new Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses in an effort to bolster the nation’s nuclear energy push.
The proposed campuses will support the nuclear lifecycle, the Department explained, which includes “fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing used nuclear fuel, and final disposition of used nuclear fuel.” The sites may also host “advanced reactor deployment, power generation, advanced manufacturing, and co-located data centers.”
“I’m pleased to announce that after reviewing 28 applications from 26 states, the Energy Department has selected five initial contenders to further explore building Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses,” said Energy Secretary Christ Wright. “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.”
In June, the Department of Energy announced a “rebirth” of the nation’s nuclear industry, as an advanced reactor design successfully completed a criticality demonstration.
The test, part of the Reactor Pilot Program, centered on Antares Nuclear’s design of the Mark-0 and concluded that the reactor can operate safely and establishes a basis that allows other reactors to produce electricity in 2027. The department said at the time that the criticality test was one of the “most significant technological achievements in nuclear energy in over 40 years” and “will go on to inform the design and licensing of future commercial reactor deployments.”
