Ask the key questions! Impacted communities must have a say in decisions that affect their health, safety, and future.
If you listen to the news at all, you may have heard a lot about nuclear power in the last year. Nuclear energy is being touted as a “carbon-free,” “clean” power source, and as a critical energy source to power AI data centers. Right now, state leaders are pushing hard to make Utah “the nation’s nuclear hub,” and they’re doing it without truly listening to the people most at risk or giving them a choice.
In July, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Utah as one of five potential host states for a “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus” that could bring activities spanning the nuclear fuel cycle, including fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment, reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, and radioactive waste storage, to Utah’s West Desert, within the Great Salt Lake watershed.
Meanwhile, we are seeing companies exploring how commercially unavailable small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could be used to power data centers. At the start of fall, Valar Atomics secured a lease on state trust lands in Carbon County and submitted an application on 9,600 acres of BLM lands for a large-scale project that could use more than 450 small reactors to power industrial activities, including data centers.
HEAL Utah is deeply concerned that the current rush toward nuclear power puts Utah’s energy future at risk. HEAL fully acknowledges the existential threat of climate change and the urgency of addressing it. However, nuclear power is not a quick or low-cost climate solution. New nuclear projects can take years to develop, face significant financial and regulatory uncertainties, and create long-term challenges related to radioactive waste, environmental impacts, water use, and public safety. Many of the advanced reactors and SMRs being promoted for Utah remain experimental or have not yet been commercially deployed in the United States.
HEAL’s own Executive Director, Lexi Tuddenham, said she thinks the use of federal lands for such a project raises even larger questions. “In this case, I think it’s bigger than the local community,” she said. “If we have facilities like this on public land for waste storage, for massive nuclear development, for data centers, that’s going to have tremendous implications for how public lands are used.”
Lawmakers in Utah are aggressively advancing policies and actions to expand nuclear energy, from fast-tracking permitting to taking on safety oversight for experimental reactor projects. They have also invested taxpayer money in a public relations campaign to convince communities that they should host nuclear projects, facilitated an increase in uranium mining and milling with decreases in our national monuments, and expressed their enthusiasm for pursuing fuel enrichment and reprocessing projects in the state. They’ve introduced bills that open the door to more nuclear waste in Utah and could even change regulations, while benefiting private corporations. This is all in the name of nuclear energy and without ensuring that impacted communities have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their health, safety, and future.
Much of this is happening without meaningful public input. Communities are being asked to live with the potential generational consequences of major nuclear projects without having a say in whether those projects belong in their communities in the first place. Information about proposed projects and government decisions can be difficult to find, while important decisions are being made before residents have a real opportunity to understand what is being proposed, ask questions, weigh in, or say no. For many Utahns, this has created a growing sense that decisions about their communities, health, safety, water, and future are being made for them, not with them.
Meaningful engagement should be ongoing and not limited to public hearings and comment periods. Utahns deserve timely information, honest discussion about risks and costs, and a genuine voice, including the ability to say no, when projects could fundamentally change their communities.
The projected cost of nuclear energy keeps rising and projects keep getting delayed. This is a pattern that we have seen over and over again. Taxpayer dollars will be funneled into projects that may never serve the public, while communities bear the hidden costs of uranium extraction and long-term spent fuel storage. This isn’t sustainable or equitable energy policy, it’s a public subsidy for private industry.
Before supporting nuclear energy plans we must ask: Who truly benefits? Who profits? Who gets to make the decisions? Who pays for the infrastructure? And who is left to clean up the mining sites, the tailings, spent fuel, accidents, and other radioactive contamination that is left behind at every stage of the nuclear energy fuel chain?
So far, private companies are receiving support from the state and federal government subsidized by tax payers, to lay groundwork for reactors and test projects that won’t provide energy to the grid for at least a decade, if at all.
Meanwhile, the public is being asked to shoulder the enormous externalities of financial, environmental, and health risks. Utahns deserve a meaningful seat at the table before these cards are dealt and their risk of losing increases.
So, What's the Problem?
Nuclear energy isn’t the solution it’s being sold as. HEAL has serious concerns:
- It’s expensive and slow — Most new reactor designs haven’t been built yet and could take decades to plan, permit, and construct before they even start producing energy. In the meantime they will divert resources from faster, safer renewables, or lock in even more fossil fuel emissions.
- It’s risky and toxic — From uranium mining to radioactive waste, nuclear energy puts human health and the environment in danger, especially when the spent fuel will remain on site near communities. This is especially true with new reactors untested at commercial scales.
- It’s benefiting a few at the cost of many — Taxpayer dollars are being spent to “pave the way” for an industry that is at least a decade out from providing energy.
- It lacks transparency — Most importantly, decisions are being made behind closed doors without data-driven analysis or real public engagement.
Instead of rushing into a nuclear future, Utah must slow down and listen, especially to the communities most impacted by these decisions. True climate solutions are ones that uplift and protect people, not just industries.
The Ask: Your Voice Matters
As a resident of Utah, you deserve a say in how we power our future.
Here at HEAL Utah, we regularly hear from you as you reach out to express your concerns and questions about radioactive threats, but it seems that our legislators and decision makers are not hearing or listening to these concerns. We hear lawmakers telling organizations and experts that raise legitimate issues that they are “fear mongering” or “can’t be taken seriously.” So now it’s time they hear from YOU, their constituents, neighbors, and friends.
All Utahns need to support and protect each other and our state. This is a time to come together to protect your community and your neighbors and their neighbors and so on. We all need to urge our lawmakers to center community voices and decisions, especially those most at risk of toxic exposure, in all energy decisions. Let’s choose clean, proven solutions that create good jobs, lower bills, and protect our health and land for generations.
Please use our action alert as a starting point and add your story. We also ask for you to call or email your decision maker and share your story that way with them as well. We know that form emails too often are ignored, so make sure to include your own story in your email to ensure they are reading and counting every email that comes their way.
Take Action Now
Contact your decision makers today and demand:
- No nuclear energy development without full community involvement and public transparency with the opportunity for communities to say “no”.
- A halt to fast-tracking, uranium extraction, experimental nuclear projects and deregulating nuclear waste.
- Real investment in renewable energy solutions that are safe, affordable, and equitable.
Utah deserves better than a risky nuclear gamble. Let’s build a clean energy future that works for everyone, not just for a few private companies.
- Spread the Word: Share this alert with friends, family, and your network. The more people are aware of these threats, the stronger our collective voice.
- Stay Informed: Follow HEAL Utah for updates and further actions you can take to protect our environment and community.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn