By Mike Tony
For Charleston Gazette-Mail
The federal government is looking for states to volunteer to dispose of used nuclear fuel.
West Virginia has raised its hand.
State leaders want to go nuclear, and they’ve told the federal government they can get going quickly.
West Virginia is one of six states under consideration by the United States Department of Energy to be home to a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus — a federal effort 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.
West Virginia met an April 1 Department of Energy deadline to respond to a department request for information seeking input from states interested in hosting a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus but wasn’t among five states that signed memoranda of understanding with the agency in July to keep exploring the opportunity to do so.
This month, however, the Department of Energy revisited West Virginia’s application and added it as the sixth state in the fold as a potential host site, signing a memorandum of understanding on Sept. 2.
West Virginia did not release its response to the request for information or the memorandum of understanding with the Department of Energy upon Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s Sept. 8 announcement of the department advancing the state’s application.
But the Gazette-Mail obtained West Virginia’s request for information response and memorandum of understanding with the Department of Energy via Freedom of Information Act requests with the state Department of Commerce, which houses the Office of Energy, and the Governor’s Office.
The documents show the Morrisey administration touting what it reports as the state’s ability and willingness to fast-track permitting, rights-of-way and other project hurdles in addition to specific proposed sites in an effort to be named a host location.
In its request for information response, Morrisey’s Office of Energy held up House Bill 2014, a controversial 2025 state law aimed at fast-tracking data center and microgrid development by stripping local governments of control over project approval and siting, as a boon for potential technology and industry partnerships as a prospective campus site.
The Office of Energy also predicted West Virginia could overcome potential public opposition to hosting a campus site and telling the federal government its “long standing history of energy production and heavy industry” has “contributed to a workforce and public that are generally familiar with large scale energy projects,” calling itself “a highly favorable state for entrance into the nuclear landscape.”
“West Virginia proposes to serve as the nation’s central hub for nuclear fuel recycling, interim storage, and long-term materials stewardship,” the state said in its response to the request for information.
W.Va. agreed to OK all permits needed for campus
In the memorandum of understanding between the Department of Energy and West Virginia, the former agreed not only to provide technical expertise but to advocate on behalf of the latter to receive, “on an expedited and prioritized basis, any certificate, right-of-way, permit, lease, or other authorization or benefit relating to the” campus.
West Virginia, in turn, agreed to provide all necessary permits and approvals to support a campus, including those pertaining to utilities like electricity and water.
Either party may terminate the memorandum of understanding, with 30 days’ notice, if a host agreement isn’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 MOU, in which the parties agreed to enter into such an accord.
In a response to another Gazette-Mail Freedom of Information Act request seeking the host agreement, Governor’s Office Deputy General Counsel Eric Hadnall said in a letter dated Wednesday that execution of the host agreement was pending.
In its request for information response, West Virginia’s Office of Energy boasted “a vast transportation network developed for coal distribution, abundant development sites ready for industrial use, and a location surrounded by nuclear-ready or nuclear-fueled states.”
The office said the initial phase of progress toward campus support would include development of “a dedicated entity, potentially entitled The West Virginia Nuclear Authority … that would provide West Virginia with the capacity to administer nuclear siting, financial incentives, community engagement, workforce development, risk management, and other appropriate functions.”
The Office of Energy noted that West Virginia in 2022 passed legislation in Senate Bill 4 that lifted state restrictions on nuclear power plant construction.
The office listed as the top priority for a campus function status as a consolidated interim storage facility, followed by research for final disposition and long-term storage boreholes, advanced reactor deployment, and research into nuclear fuel recycling, respectively.
The consolidated interim storage facility would enable storing used nuclear fuel from decommissioned or active nuclear power plant sites at one location, the Office of Energy said in the document, predicting that doing so would simplify security and decrease government liability for storage costs.
The state would have to secure a license for and develop the facility, which would be operated by a private-sector partner, per the office.
The Office of Energy proposed to “layer in research for the potential use of available state lands for final disposition of spent fuel” and noted the site could host small modular reactors to power the campus and nearby energy-intensive infrastructure, including new data centers.
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