Oklahoma reveals new details of nuclear facility bid, but many questions remain

Oklahoma provided information Wednesday on its bid to land a nuclear facility, but there were many questions that still remain.

While releasing some new details, it’s still not clear where that facility could be or what kind of long-term impacts the state could see.

“It has a track record of operating safely now for decade after decade after decade, not only here, but in places like France,” said Jeff Starling, who has served as Oklahoma’s secretary of energy and environment.

Starling said nuclear energy is much safer now than it was 50 years ago, the last time it was generated in Oklahoma.

“For decades, our soldiers and sailors have a nuclear reactor in the back of their ships that they’ve been living and operated with safely for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in the period you’re talking about, when we had the Kerr-McGee facility, didn’t even exist at the time. This is now the most heavily regulated industry, certainly, if not one of the most heavily regulated industries in the entire world right now,” Starling said.

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Groundwater remediation continues at Kerr-McGee’s old nuclear plant in Logan County.

This new facility would be Oklahoma’s first venture back into the industry.

The state showed a presentation describing in detail how the new three-part campus would work. That includes reactors and isotope production, fuel enrichment and recycling, and a third portion for used nuclear fuel disposition, which is where nuclear waste could be put into the ground.

“How is this not a dumping ground if these are regional campuses that are disposing of the fuel?” KOCO’s Chantelle Navarro asked.

“I’m not sure I follow that question,” Starling said. “Part of this is this is a deep, long term geologic isolation of what’s left over after the nuclear process. We talked about the reprocessing of fuel, the economic value streams of that that come that can transform the state. Part of the stream of that is a waste that does need to be disposed of. We deal with waste in many different industrial processes. This is another waste. It can be safely handled, and it will be in the campus,” Starling said.

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The waste could come from outside Oklahoma, as well.

The state’s proposal said the campus could receive external fuel for recycling and future regional waste streams.

Right now, the state is competing with Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Utah and Idaho. The federal government is expected to pick at least three states.

State leaders touted how this facility would be better for a nearby community than a data center.

“Data centers come in. There may be a handful of jobs. This is up to 25,000 jobs across the state. Huge economic input, and this isn’t a drain on resources. Data centers do use electricity off the grid. This actually is providing electricity back into the ground,” Starling said.

The federal government is expected to make its decision by the end of the year.

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