Part 1: A Struggling Coal Town Looks to a Nuclear Future
Bill Gates-backed TerraPower to build state’s first nuclear power plant
Oct. 1, 2022
The Naughton Power Plant, located just outside of Kemmerer, will shut down in 2028. TerraPower's nuclear power plant, with its Natrium reactor, is expected to replace the lost coal jobs and employ a workforce of 250. (Wyoming Truth photo by Samuel Gilbert)
By Samuel Gilbert
Special to the Wyoming Truth
KEMMERER, Wyo.—In late 2019, Teri Picerno heard that the Naughton coal power plant outside of Kemmerer would close in the coming years. The news was devastating for the local bar owner and 42-year resident of the small Wyoming coal town.
“It was like someone pulled the plug,” said Picerno, speaking inside the Fossil Country Frontier Museum, a red brick building filled with artifacts from Kemmerer’s coal boom times.
A bronze statue of James Cash Penney presides over the town square. Penney opened the first J.C Penney department store in Kemmerer in 1902. (Wyoming Truth photo by Samuel Gilbert)
It wasn’t long before Picerno’s customers at Grumpies Bar tightened their wallets. Biweekly regulars from the power plant and coal mine started coming in every other week, which put a big dent in her profits.
“It creates that feeling of uncertainty,” Picerno said of the prospect of losing the two largest employers in town and a significant percentage of her clientele. “I think they were afraid.”
As a small business owner, Picerno’s livelihood, like that of her town, depends on coal. For 120 years, the fossil fuel industry has been the linchpin of Kemmerer's economy. But with the state and country steadily moving away from coal—a projected 45% decline in coal power production by the end of the decade—her community, and others like it, face an uncertain future.
“People realize we need to do something to save the town,” said Picerno. “Or, you know, we will just dry up and blow away.”
A new nuclear future
Kemmerer is the seat of Lincoln County in southwestern Wyoming, stretching north to south along the Ham’s Fork River. Its sleepy main street is lined with old storefronts, fossil shops and a series of modest locally-owned motels with names like “The Antler” and “Fairview.”
The few chains in Kemmerer include a TacoTime and the ever-present dollar store, as well as two corporate hotels located outside of town heading toward the power plant. In 1902, Kemmerer’s most famous citizen, James Cash Penney, opened the first J.C. Penney department store in town—and the “mother store” has been in continuous operation ever since. A large bronze statue of Penney now presides over the town square.
Salvation for Kemmerer may arrive from a renewed national interest in nuclear power. In November 2021, the Bill Gates-founded TerraPower chose Kemmerer as the location for an experimental sodium-cooled Natrium reactor—the state's first nuclear power project.
TerraPower plans to finish the “advanced” multibillion-dollar, 345-megawatt power plant by 2028. Once completed, the Natrium reactor will employ a workforce of 200 to 250, replacing those lost from the coal power plant closure, said Kemmerer Mayor William [Bill] Thek There also will be thousands of part-time jobs during the construction process.
Mayor William (Bill) Thek said that TerraPower, which is building the state's first nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, has "essentially rescued the town from an early depopulation." (Wyoming Truth photo by Samuel Gilbert)
Since TerraPower’s announcement nearly a year ago, there has been steady activity in Kemmerer, including a series of successful soil and other tests to confirm the adequacy of the reactor site. Next spring, TerraPower will break ground on the laboratory that will test the efficacy of technology that uses sodium to cool the reactors. This project will require approximately 150 temporary workers and eventually have a dozen or so permanent employees. Excavation of the nuclear island, where the reactor will be located, is slated to begin in 2024.
The “coal to nuclear transition” is part of a growing movement to replace carbon-emitting fossil fuels to curb climate change. Dozens of companies are developing advanced reactor designs supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, according to the Office of Nuclear Energy. Proponents say these new designs are cheaper, safer and produce less waste than traditional nuclear reactors.
Critically retiring coal plants can provide a skilled workforce and power infrastructure for new nuclear reactors.
Mark Thatcher, who worked as a coal mine electrician for 29 years and another 13 years at underground mines, said the cost-saving potential is vast. “You won’t have to build two or three miles of power lines to get into the grid,” said Thatcher, 66a longtime resident of Kemmerer. “That distribution network would cost more than the reactor.”
Thek believes his town shows the potential of new nuclear in regions affected by the shuttering of coal plants: “They can use us as a model to do the same for their own communities.”
But others question the expansion of nuclear power. A report by the Union of Concerned Citizens, “Advanced Isn’t Always Better,” found that these new reactors will be costly, vulnerable to catastrophic accidents and produce toxic nuclear waste.
New reactors are “not likely to be significantly safer than today’s nuclear plant,” the report claims. “In fact, certain alternative reactor designs pose even more safety, proliferation and environmental risks than the current fleet.”
Shannon Anderson, staff attorney for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, is concerned about the lack of regulations for new advanced reactor technology and the troubling prospect of “temporarily” storing nuclear waste at the facility.
“We know that temporary really means permanent,” she said.
What’s more, Anderson questions the value of prioritizing expensive nuclear power over other renewables. “This is very expensive power, 350 megawatts for $4 billion,” she said. “You invest it here or invest in renewables that are cost effective and can come online. This [Natrium reactor] is this huge shiny object distracting from real solutions.”
TerraPower declined to comment and instead shared links to its company website, which espousees the benefits of “clean” and “cost-effective” energy supplied by the Natrium reactor.
Thek believes the technology is safe and will provide an economic lifeline for his struggling coal town that has seen its population decline from 3,300 in 1980 to 2,400 in 2022, according to the World Population Review.
“I don’t want to say we were desperate,” said Thek, who came into office after the announcement that the Naughton coal power plant would shut down. “My sole purpose in this [mayoral position] was preservation.”
The coal plant's closure meant the loss of 128 high-paying jobs and further layoffs at the nearby coal plant, which supplies 60% of Naughton’s coal.
Said Thek: “It [TerraPower] essentially rescued the town from an early depopulation.”
Check back tomorrow for part two.
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