l Southwest Ledger
Six states - Oklahoma, Utah, Louisiana, Tennessee, Idaho and West Virginia - are vying for a potential Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus.
The U.S. Department of Energy has requested information from states interested in hosting one of the campuses “to anchor integrated, full-cycle nuclear ecosystems that could co-locate and support the entire nuclear value chain while exploring durable pathways for managing used nuclear materials in a safe, secure, and fiscally responsible manner.”
The campuses must support functions such as fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing used nuclear fuel, and disposition of waste, and could additionally support functions such as advanced reactor deployment, power generation, advanced manufacturing, and co-located data centers, via “integrated, forward-looking solutions...”
A Memorandum of Understanding between the DOE and the State of Oklahoma “concerning establishment of a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus” in this state was approved and signed July 27 by Gov. Kevin Stitt and by U.S. Secretary of Energy Christopher A. Wright.
Federal/state collaborations to develop integrated Innovation Campuses would serve as “a model for innovation, safety, and economic growth.”
The envisioned campuses would focus “primarily on fuel fabrication, enrichment, used nuclear material reprocessing or recycling, advanced separations, and the management of waste streams.”
They also could “fully integrate, and to the extent possible, co-locate the entire nuclear value chain,” the DOE said. This integration could “span research and development, uranium mining and milling, conversion, deconversion, advanced reactor deployment, advanced manufacturing, and data center construction and operations.”
Innovation Campuses also could “support isotope production for medical, industrial, and national security applications...” Just about everything the U.S. has accomplished in outer space in the last 50 years has been powered by isotopes, NASA reported. Workforce development “will be central to the success” of Innovation Campuses, which ideally would “prioritize training, apprenticeships, and partnerships with universities and technical colleges to cultivate a new generation of nuclear scientists, engineers, operators, and skilled trades, all operating in a safe environment.”
Such efforts could create thousands of “high-paying jobs and foster a culture of safety, innovation, and excellence.”
Direct employment might include scientists, engineers, and data analysts for nuclear research and artificial intelligence development; workers for mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication; information technology specialists, data scientists, and cybersecurity specialists; engineers and scientists to design, build, and operate waste management systems.
Environmental stewardship and public trust would be ensured through “robust monitoring programs, radiological safety protocols, and strict compliance with streamlined federal and state regulatory frameworks.”
An innovation campus may generate state and local tax revenue through corporate taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes from workers.
A potential influx of workers and families could drive the need for housing, schools, hospitals, and recreational facilities.
A nuclear campus would need perhaps 1,000 or more acres of land.
Electricity to the campus would be supplied from a local/regional electric company connected to the multi-state Southwest Power Pool grid.
Wink Kopczynski, chief of Occlusion Nuclear Solutions based in Tulsa, observed that energy demand is outpacing supply as data centers, bitcoin mining, and other large industries “require more power.” Occlusion Solutions and another company, Deep Fission, joined hands, noting that nuclear energy is “the most viable longterm option,” but the permitting process and construction costs and timelines are “barriers to project feasibility.”
Production of uranium pellets would multiply America’s energy output. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, one uranium pellet in today’s light-water reactor can provide approximately as much energy as three 42-gallon barrels of oil, one ton of coal, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.
Occlusion Solutions has proposed drilling a large-diameter hole and installing a small modular reactor one mile underground. The hole would be filled with fluid that would be heated, generating steam to produce electricity.
Kopczynski estimated subterranean energy costs at 5 to 7 centers per kilowatt-hour, and said a subsurface small modular reactor would provide “affordability and safety.”
Presumably, proximity to one or more airports and interstate highways will be a critical factor in campus site selection. Oklahoma would defer to the DOEs assessment and would be flexible about requisite infrastructure.
Oklahomans figure prominently in the effort to secure one of the three Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, which the DEO would prefer to be deployed “quickly,” with initial facilities online in 2027.
A meeting on this subject was held Sept. 10 at The Lawton Constitution.
Those who attended the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus promotion at the newspaper were told that the nuclear energy industry was “sclerotic, it was calcified; it wasn’t moving.”
The U.S. “hadn’t built reactors of any significance in this country in decades - and the ones we did build were way over budget and way behind time.” The industry “hasn’t been putting new electrons on the grid.”
The session at The Constitution attracted a Who’s Who of the industry. They included:
• Jeff Starling, former state Secretary of Energy who was recently named executive director of the Hamm Institute for American Energy, and Chris Schenker, the deputy state Secretary of Energy.
• Taylor Coye, vice president of Strategic Affairs with Occlusion Nuclear Solutions.
• Rod Baltzer, president and chief executive officer of Deep Isolation Nuclear. He said he was reared on a dair farm in Talala, in northwestern Rogers County.
•Jacob DeWitt and his wife, Caroline, co-founders of Oklo, which is headquartered in Tulsa. Oklo is an advanced nuclear technology company developing fast fission power plants to deliver clean, reliable and affordable energy. The company was founded in 2013 and today has approximately 400 employees in Santa Clara, California; Rockville, Maryland; and Brooklyn, New York. Oklo has current project sites in Texas, Tennessee, Alaska, Idaho, and Ohio. At 4 p.m. Friday Oklo stock was listed at $35.87 on the New York Stock Exchange.
• Chase Horn, public information coordinator for the State Commerce Department.
Similar meetings are scheduled to be held in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Woodward.
Public statements and letters of support have been issued by state and federal officials, from Oklahoma’s research universities, and from industry and technical units in the industry.
The DOE contends America’s ability to produce nuclear fuel domestically has declined, “and there is a huge push” from the Trump Administration “to bring some of that capacity back’ to the U.S.
Today the U.S. produces only about 7% of its uranium domestically, which means 93% of it comes from elsewhere.