As some communities in far northwest Colorado discuss hosting a temporary nuclear waste storage facility, western leaders are reaffirming they want a say.
Highly radioactive waste, a by-product of electricity generation, has been piling up at nuclear power plants around the country in recent years, and the federal government has been searching for a temporary location to put it. In 2010, plans for a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada fell through.
The Western Governors Association, which includes Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and 21 other governors around the west, approved a resolution Monday outlining their views on the potential storage and transport of radioactive nuclear waste in their states.
“No consolidated facility for nuclear waste, whether interim or permanent, or privately or federally owned and operated, shall be located within the geographic boundaries of a western state or U.S. territory without the written consent of the current Governor in whose state or territory the facility is to be located,” part of their policy reads.
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Their position is almost exactly the same as a previous policy the group passed three years ago. But the updated views of governors’ on the waste issue could become more relevant in the coming months.
Meetings about the concept of storing spent nuclear fuel from power plants have been held in recent months in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, which border Utah in northwest Colorado.
Federal efforts to find a storage location are about to enter a new phase while the Trump administration seeks to quickly build new reactors and usher in a “nuclear renaissance.”
Because many western states already host some form of nuclear waste from power plants or weapons development, Troy Timmons, the group’s policy director, said the issue of waste is in front of western governors’ ‘every single day.’
“The newfound interest in nuclear is also going to have to come with a renewed interest in finding a disposal solution for all that waste,” Timmons said. “I think every state recognizes the importance of having both local and state support for these choices on radioactive waste and any interim storage.”
Governors have intervened and stopped county-level efforts to explore nuclear waste storage in their states before.
In the early 1990s, the Department of Energy required a letter of “no opposition” from a state’s governor before a community could receive funding to consider storing nuclear waste.
In 1992, Wyoming’s governor did not object to Fremont County’s request to begin talks but when it came time to apply for the next phase of funding, which would have involved identifying potential storage sites, then-governor Mike Sullivan denied the request.
“Who can assure us what risks we would accept that new businesses may choose not to locate in Wyoming or what the alteration of our image as a state, or environment or our tourism industry may be from our willingness to embrace this nuclear waste?,” he wrote in a letter to the county commissioners.
Search for a host community entering new phase
The Department of Energy (DOE) has in recent years been using what it’s now calling a collaboration-based siting process to eventually identify a place willing to store spent fuel from power plants.
In the early phases of this process the DOE has awarded millions of dollars in grant funds with the goal of starting conversations about nuclear waste storage around the country, fielding questions and concerns communities have about it, and learning who might be interested.
DOE says their process will ensure “state, local, and Tribal partners have a say in determining where and how waste management facilities are sited.”
Last month, an official helping to lead that process, said DOE is ready to enter a “second phase” in this years-long effort.
Stephanie Weir, the national technical director for collaboration-based siting, said DOE will soon ask for communities that are interested in hosting a spent nuclear fuel to apply for a chance to explore the opportunity further.
“And it’s not a commitment to host a facility,” Weir said in a presentation at a recent nuclear energy forum in Idaho. “It really and truly is just an opportunity to see if this fits into the vision for your region.”
A timeline she displayed showed this step is tentatively scheduled for the end of the year, with applications being reviewed early in 2026.
Weir said successful applicants will receive “federal funding and technical assistance to help them work through community-led projects that will help inform this decision process.”
Weir added DOE will also be releasing a document “in the next few months” detailing what would be required at a storage location, including at least a two-and-a-half-mile buffer zone and a lack of coastal barriers, endangered species and protected lands.
“We're going to be flexible, adaptive and iterative, and we're going to release a new process document that will help us collect those lessons learned and improve the process as we move forward,” she said of the search process.
DOE officials involved in the search for a place to build a temporary waste storage facility are scheduled to speak at an Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado board meeting on Wednesday, June 25 being held in Rifle, a town in western Colorado.
KUNC News asked to interview Marla Morales, the leader of DOE's collaborative-based siting office, earlier this month about the status of the federal siting efforts. A spokesperson replied with the following statement.
“DOE is pursuing all options regarding the management of spent nuclear fuel. Updates related to the program are currently pending the appointment and program approval of the nominee for Assistant Secretary (for nuclear energy) Mr. Ted Garrish, who is awaiting Senate confirmation. We will be better able to accommodate requests for interviews following his confirmation.”
