5 states offer to accept nuclear waste in exchange for help developing nuclear energy

{beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment The Big Story Energy eyes nuclear waste deal with five states The Trump administration is eyeing five states that could accept nuclear waste, disposal of which has been a longtime issue with nuclear power. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein The Energy Department said Tuesday that it signed memorandums of... WASHINGTON (AP) — Five states have agreed to accept nuclear waste from around the country in exchange for federal help developing nuclear energy to create thousands of jobs.The states — Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho — all have Republican governors who say they welcome the chance to help America reclaim its leadership in civilian nuclear energy.If built, the storage sites would represent significant progress in a multi-decade effort to store more than 95,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.

Plans for a permanent underground storage facility at Nevada's Yucca Mountain have long been stalled because of staunch opposition from most residents and officials.Spent fuel is currently stored at nuclear plants and former nuclear sites nationwide and is piling up. New storage sites would move the radioactive material away from population centers, fault lines and flood plains. Experts say the plan also should help officials gain consent from communities that will host the repositories.Under the non-binding agreements, the states could host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses that would include waste sites as well as uranium enrichment, spent-fuel reprocessing and fuel fabrication.

The campuses may also host advanced reactor deployment, power generation and data centers, the Energy Department said.Nuclear campuses could boost state economiesThe campuses have the potential to attract up to $50 billion in private investment and generate as much as $10 billion in state and local tax revenues, the Energy Department said in a statement. Eligible projects could access federal loans worth billions of dollars, the department said.“These campuses will be massive generators of economic growth ... and be crucial to unleashing America’s nuclear renaissance,'' Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.

He called the proposed campuses an “innovative concept” that will "get America’s nuclear industry growing again.''Tennessee is home to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which enriched uranium during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, while Idaho hosts the Idaho National Laboratory, a key research site for nuclear energy and national security. Utah was a source of raw uranium for the Manhattan Project and a training site for crews that dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.“As the global epicenter of nuclear energy, Tenness…