By Mike Tony
For Charleston Gazette-Mail
West Virginia has backed away from its effort to land a campus via a federal advanced nuclear energy program to support activities throughout the nuclear fuel life cycle after a Gazette-Mail report drew withering scrutiny to that effort.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey had said on social media Sunday that “West Virginia will not be a dumping ground for nuclear waste,” reversing the state’s posture after Morrisey’s Office of Energy repeatedly welcomed exploring final disposition of used nuclear fuel in a document it submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy declaring the state’s interest in the latter agency’s Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus program.
That program is designed to grow U.S. advanced nuclear energy via campuses that support activities throughout the nuclear fuel life cycle, including enriching uranium, converting it into fuel, reprocessing used fuel and disposing of nuclear waste.
Morrisey’s social media post Sunday was a response to a Gazette-Mail story published Friday that examined his administration’s effort to land a campus in West Virginia and prompted environmental and public health concerns responding to the potential for long-term nuclear waste storage in West Virginia.
Although Morrisey claimed in his social media post Sunday that the state was only interested in nuclear generation and manufacturing, his Office of Energy prioritized nuclear waste storage throughout its document submitted to meet the Department of Energy’s April 1 deadline.
The Department of Energy added West Virginia as the sixth state under consideration as a potential host site via a Sept. 2 memorandum of understanding.
W.Va. Office of Energy backs away from application
But in a one-paragraph letter dated Wednesday and addressed to Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Marla Morales, Office of Energy Director Nicholas Preservati said his office was “unable to execute the Hosting Agreement and commit fully to its requirements[.]”
Both the Office of Energy and the Department of Energy could terminate their memorandum of understanding, with 30 days’ notice, if a host agreement wasn’t executed by Sept. 30. A host agreement would specify the financing and capital structure of the campus and development of infrastructure at the campus, including for disposal of nuclear waste, per the memorandum of understanding, in which the parties agreed to enter into such an accord.
Preservati added in his letter dated Wednesday that West Virginia remained “fully committed to supporting President [Donald] Trump and [Department of Energy] Secretary [Chris] Wright’s vision for a national nuclear renaissance.”
“Please know that we stand ready and willing to support the DOE, its NLIC initiative and future NLIC recipients,” Preservati concluded.
A day earlier, a Department of Energy spokesperson told the Gazette-Mail that negotiations were “ongoing between the Department of Energy and the six states interested in potentially hosting a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus.”
The Department of Energy in July announced it had chosen Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah to advance to the next stage in its campus site consideration process.
The department has not responded to a Gazette-Mail request for comment on why West Virginia was not in the initial group of five potential host states but added to the consideration pool later.
The Governor’s Office, the Office of Energy and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
The news about Wednesday’s letter from the West Virginia Office of Energy was first reported by the Parkersburg News and Sentinel.
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