Kemmerer, Wyo. — Wind whips an American flag above the construction site of what will be just the fourth U.S. nuclear reactor built this century and among the first of a new generation of advanced designs.
Terra Power, the Bill Gates‑backed company based in Washington state, says the Kemmerer project will be the first of many aimed at supplying low‑emission power to energy‑exporting states like Wyoming. CEO Chris Levesque, who joined Terra Power after a career in the conventional nuclear industry, says the company’s advanced reactor technology makes plants safer and faster to build. Unlike typical reactors that use water for cooling, Terra Power’s design uses liquid sodium and locates many systems underground.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Terra Power final approval to start construction in March, capping five years of studies and safety reviews and a contest to site the plant. Levesque says the political and public dynamic around nuclear is shifting: communities that once resisted plants are now competing to host them as demand for reliable, low‑carbon power rises. The company expects the Kemmerer plant, if it’s online by 2031, to generate enough electricity for a utility serving almost half a million homes, with likely customers including Salt Lake City. Terra Power has also signed agreements to build multiple reactors for Meta to power that company’s data centers.
That anticipated demand is bolstered by forecasts — including from the International Energy Agency — that artificial intelligence and other data‑heavy industries will sharply increase electricity needs. To help meet that demand, big tech and the federal government are investing in new nuclear projects. The Department of Energy’s pilot program that propelled Terra Power’s first project began under the Trump administration and was supported by the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Law, which committed roughly $2 billion toward construction. The program has drawn interest from Rocky Mountain states competing for DOE nuclear hubs, including applications from Utah and Idaho.
State and local leaders have welcomed the Kemmerer project. Wyoming’s governor and congressional delegation praised the start of full‑scale construction. Kemmerer city administrator Brian Muir says the town — once written off when coal demand fell — sees the plant as an economic lifeline. Hundreds of skilled jobs are being created, and parts of the nearby coal plant will be converted to natural gas to preserve about 100 existing jobs. Muir says local knowledge of energy gives the community confidence to host new technology, and the city is already lobbying for a second reactor.
But nuclear’s resurgence is not without controversy. Environmental and community groups, especially in the West, point to a legacy of abandoned uranium mines and radioactive contamination that disproportionately affected Indigenous lands and downwind communities. Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance Utah (HEAL), warns that the region has long been treated as a “sacrifice zone.” She is alarmed by Utah’s proposal to site a federal nuclear hub about 10 miles from the drying Great Salt Lake and questions the long‑term costs to taxpayers and ratepayers should the industry expand.
Terra Power says the Kemmerer facility will store spent fuel onsite until a federal permanent repository is approved and that its advanced design produces less waste than many legacy reactors. Debate remains over whether that claim and onsite storage plans sufficiently address concerns about long‑term waste management and environmental justice.
Political dynamics are also complex: some Wyoming elected officials supported the project despite having opposed the Infrastructure Law that funded part of it. Neighboring states are actively courting nuclear investment; Utah Governor Spencer Cox has pitched a “nuclear life cycle innovation campus” to enrich fuel, recycle it and store waste — possibly including waste from plants like Kemmerer — while emphasizing nuclear’s role in energy abundance.
As construction progresses at Kemmerer, the project represents both the promise and the tensions of a potential nuclear renaissance: economic renewal for a coal town, new partnerships between tech companies and government, advanced reactor designs proponents say are safer and cleaner, and lingering worries about radioactive waste, long‑term costs and environmental impacts.