Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Emery County holds public hearing on microreactor testing at San Rafael Energy Lab
Summary
At a June 17 public hearing in Castle Dale, Emery County officials and residents debated proposals for small 'micro' reactor testing at the state-run San Rafael Energy Lab. Supporters cited jobs and research; opponents raised safety, cancer history and housing and tax impacts.
Emery County, Utah — Emery County held a public hearing on June 17 to collect community input about proposals to test small nuclear reactors and other energy research at the San Rafael Energy Lab.
The San Rafael Energy Lab’s director, Jared Wallace, told the meeting that the facility — now state-owned — has drawn interest from companies including Valor Atomics and NuCube, and emphasized these proposals are for test reactors, not large-scale power plants. "This isn't a large scale reactor. This isn't even a power reactor," Wallace said, describing the projects as research and demonstration efforts aimed at understanding how to build the technology more cheaply and safely.
Why it matters: county officials and many residents framed the discussion as weighing potential local economic gains (jobs, manufacturing and tax base) against public-safety and public-health concerns. County speakers and attendees repeatedly asked for clearer timelines, transparent information about…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat