Seven governors are competing for billions in federal nuclear projects.
State governors are racing to secure billions in federal nuclear energy projects, but none are publicly addressing what happens to the radioactive waste their facilities would generate.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Monday the state submitted a bid to host U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses. All six New England governors followed with a coordinated announcement pledging to explore advanced nuclear energy technology.
Neither announcement mentioned long-term radioactive waste storage, decommissioning costs, or contamination risks.
The governors are pitching nuclear energy as clean and necessary for regional energy needs. What they are not discussing: the United States has no permanent solution for high-level radioactive waste storage, and temporary storage sites have leaked contamination into groundwater across the country.
Idaho already hosts the Idaho National Laboratory, where the federal government has spent decades and billions of dollars attempting to clean up radioactive contamination from Cold War-era nuclear operations. Cleanup costs have exceeded $1 billion annually for years, with no completion date in sight.
New England governors framed their nuclear push as addressing "long-term energy needs" but did not address long-term waste storage, which remains radioactive for thousands of years.
The DOE request for information does not require states to submit waste management plans or demonstrate capacity to handle radioactive materials safely.
Economic development offices in both Idaho and New England promoted job creation and energy independence in their announcements. Environmental agencies were not included in the press events.
None of the seven governors responded to questions about radioactive waste storage before publication.
The competition reflects a broader federal push to expand nuclear infrastructure without resolving waste storage issues that have plagued the industry for decades. Current U.S. policy stores high-level radioactive waste on-site at reactor facilities indefinitely, with no permanent repository operational.
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