West Virginia Backs Out of Federal Nuclear Innovation Campus Bid Over Waste-Storage Terms
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has withdrawn the state's application to join the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Life Cycle Innovation Campus (NLIC) program, ending the controversial nuclear initiative. On Sept. 2, Morrisey had announced that West Virginia signed a memorandum of understanding with DOE, becoming the sixth candidate state for the federal advanced-nuclear program aimed at attracting advanced reactor deployment, fuel fabrication, and high-end manufacturing investment.
But the Charleston Gazette-Mail subsequently revealed that the state energy office's 48-page application proposed a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at an abandoned mine site in Boone County — and that the MOU text obtained via a FOIA request showed the project required states to be able to handle out-of-state spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. The reports sparked environmental and public-health concerns; Morrisey quickly reversed course on social media, declaring "West Virginia will never be a nuclear waste dumping ground," and wrote to DOE to exit the program.
An Oct. 11 Herald-Dispatch editorial noted the episode exposed flip-flopping in the state's nuclear policy. The project had been expected to bring massive investment and tens of thousands of jobs, but the waste-storage terms became an untouchable political red line. Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah remain in negotiations with DOE over the program's scope.
(Source: West Virginia Press Association / Charleston Gazette-Mail)
Source: West Virginia Press Association / Charleston Gazette-Mail
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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