Trump admin selects five Republican-led states for nuclear fuel-cycle hubs

Published Jul 29, 08:00 PM UTC

The U.S. Department of Energy has chosen Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho as potential hosts for Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, an initiative to store and reprocess spent nuclear fuel, support advanced reactor deployment, and expand domestic manufacturing. The project aims to attract up to $50 billion in capital investment, generate $10 billion in state and local tax revenue, and create nearly 25,000 jobs. The campuses would cover the full nuclear fuel lifecycle, including enrichment, reprocessing, and final waste disposition, and may also host data centers. The selection addresses the long-standing U.S. problem of nuclear waste storage, as the country currently lacks a permanent disposal facility and stores over 95,000 metric tons of spent fuel across 79 sites. The initiative aligns with the Trump administration's goal to quadruple U.S. nuclear energy capacity to 400 GW by 2050.