Wyoming committee fails to advance bill to allow reactor manufacturers to store spent fuel onsite

CHEYENNE — The Minerals, Business & Economic Development Committee considered Senate File 186, a measure to authorize advanced nuclear reactor manufacturers in Wyoming to store spent nuclear fuel produced as part of on-site manufacturing and refurbishment, but the committee voted to reject advancing the bill after extended questions and public testimony.

Senator Ed Cooper (Senate District 20), who introduced the measure in committee, said the proposal is aimed at allowing firms that manufacture small, transportable reactors to store the small quantities of spent fuel they would generate. "They're ready to go for all practical purposes to locate here in Wyoming, to manufacture microreactors on-site," Cooper said, adding that the reactors under discussion are about "a megawatt to 1 and a half megawatts" and that a manufacturing campus could be "something over between half a million and and 3 quarter million square feet of of facility." He described a business model in which units are manufactured, deployed and later returned to the manufacturer to be refurbished and refueled.

The bill, as discussed, would require the manufacturer to submit its NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) license application and supporting materials to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for verification, and would limit on-site storage to spent fuel produced by that manufacturer's reactors. Representative Lloyd Larson (House District 54), who worked on the bill language, summarized the statutory framework and the proposed amendment to clarify that the DEQ may require "additional financial assurance for decommissioning of the installation to the extent that it is not demonstrated by the financial assurance required by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

Why it matters: supporters say the measure clears a path for a new advanced-manufacturing industry and associated jobs in Wyoming while preserving NRC regulatory primacy for safety and licensing; opponents say the state needs more study and stronger guarantees before authorizing long-term storage in Wyoming.

Key points of discussion

- Ownership and…