SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said it nicely, but firmly: “We are in a time of profound stupidity.”
China has 30 nuclear reactors under construction, Utah’s governor said. But in his lifetime, only a very few have been built in the United States.
But, he stressed, “Fortune favors the bold.”
“Built Here” is a nuclear energy summit Cox convened on Tuesday in Draper.
“We want to be the center of excellence,” he said. “There is a nuclear renaissance happening, and it is happening in Utah.”
At Tuesday’s event, Cox was joined by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Idaho Gov. Brad Little in signing a memorandum of understanding that solidifies the regional effort to lay a policy platform for energy development.
Why Utah, Idaho and Wyoming? The MOU is crystal clear about the goal.
The document declares the three states “share a unique geographic and economic landscape rich in energy resources, including fossil fuels, renewable energy sources, and critical minerals essential for modern energy systems. The states also participate in a common energy market and face common challenges related to energy production and distribution, grid reliability amid rising demand, the environmental and economic impacts of energy transition, and volatile federal regulatory priorities.”
The agreement underscores the urgency that drives Cox to be a leader in this energy space.
At the event, there were a variety of notable people who work in the arena of energy, its development and how to get the United States on the map. The group included Utah lawmakers, CEOs of a variety of companies, the director of the Idaho National Laboratory, and the dean of the University of Utah’s College of Engineering.
Cox is a farm boy at heart, with a beloved home in Fairview, Sanpete County. He talked of tearing down an old barn with a sledgehammer.
“It was a rush.”
But then he threw a new thought out there.
After the barn was demolished so quickly, he pondered to the crowd how long it took to build — the sweat, the ingenuity, the thinking and planning that went into it. He said it is so easy to tear something down, but to build it takes time, money and will. That is where the United States stands to fall behind when it comes to energy, Cox said.
Utah’s governor and his regional allies do not want that to happen.
“This is one we cannot afford to lose,” said Idaho National Laboratory director John Wagner, referring to the race for the United States to be energy independent and meet the demands of the grid when it comes to data centers and artificial intelligence.
“AI, data centers don’t manufacture things, but I would say they manufacture intelligence. They manufacture insight that is literally going to change the world, and it’s absolutely critical that the United States leads in that development. We talk about nuclear power and other things being built in China, and global leadership races, and challenges in different areas,” he said.
First-of-its-kind technology of any kind is expensive, to be sure. Wagner was talking about small modular reactors and microreactors.
“Getting over the first of its kind is a hurdle,” he stressed, but it can happen.
The reality of energy demand
There was a time when energy providers, including Rocky Mountain Power, could save energy through efficiency: customers dialing back, home and business incentives through multiple rebates the utility company offers. But with the real-world technology demands of today, utility providers are struggling to keep up.
“There’s a lot of challenge, but the future has not found the time. We’re at a generational shift where we need to talk about how we move from where we are to where we need an abundance of energy infrastructure so we have what we need for today, but also for the economy and the business and quality of life,” said Dick Garlish, CEO for Rocky Mountain Power.
Cox and key lawmakers saw this coming for some time, and in Utah’s last legislative session, key measures to establish a Utah Energy Council and a nuclear consortium were passed and signed to draw on expertise to move the state forward.
Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, pushed HB249 to passage, with many lawmakers and Cox behind him who recognized the urgency.
At a break, Albrecht took an unassuming stance and, like always, personified what he is — a wait-and-see man.
“Look what I started,” he said, smiling.
“We’ll see.” Those are his catchwords from a man who spent 40 years with Garkane Energy — 23 as CEO.
Albrecht is not a skeptic, but a realist. Yet, he is also hopeful, even though he knows the reality of the energy landscape and the hard work that has to be done to get a project moving. Endless red tape. Government regulations, community sentiment and overcoming the NIMBY syndrome.
The nuclear age
At the conference, speakers emphasized that there is an awakening, despite the “scary” factor of nuclear. That is why multiple presidential administrations have emphasized that energy has to evolve, must be cost-effective, and there has been billions of dollars invested to pursue advanced nuclear development.
As Cox said, it is a crisis.
Lee Robinson, senior adviser for energy for the Defense Innovation Unit with the Department of Defense, said the agency is heavily invested in nuclear energy as a resource to power their mission. He mentioned Project Pele, under development by the Idaho National Laboratory, which is scheduled to demonstrate next year.
In Utah, Idaho National Laboratory is actively helping Tooele Army Depot in Tooele County and the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, the latter of which occupies an area the size of Rhode Island.
Robinson said the pursuit has not been without careful consideration, but is steeped in the reality of energy demands
There is an ability to house a small modular reactor or a microreactor on a military installation, he said.
What about the risk?
“We’re doing this right next to where we live. So we have confidence in those nuclear reactors, that they are inherently safe, and we’re willing to put it within miles of our elementary schools and our homes. And when we do that, we have to be very public because these towns look just like any other town around America.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
