Highly radioactive waste is piling up at nuclear power plants around the United States. And the nation has been trying, and failing, since the early 1980s to find a safer place to store this fuel once it鈥檚 done powering the reactors.
After facing decades of resistance, the federal government is slowly starting a new process to identify a storage site after its plans to permanently store all the waste in Nevada鈥檚 Yucca Mountain fell apart. That proposal was stalled by strong public opposition and environmental and safety concerns.
Many other western states have slammed the door on efforts to store this waste anywhere near their residents.
Enter the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado. in far northwestern Colorado, representing six counties bordering Utah, and is quietly cracking the door open to becoming a new home for the nation鈥檚 nuclear waste.
The group鈥檚 leaders are floating financial incentives, labeling resistance in neighboring states as NIMBYism, touting the safety record of existing waste storage facilities and pointing to Colorado鈥檚 reputation for taking on high-risk energy jobs like mining.
The AGNC has also accepted tens of thousands of dollars from the federal government to help gauge city and county officials about building a new repository somewhere in the rural part of the state.
鈥楴ot like the Simpsons鈥�
Last fall, the group organized little-noticed hearings to introduce the idea of becoming a nuclear waste repository. Some of its leaders have also met privately with state lawmakers to talk about it.
The AGNC鈥檚 goal: Trying to normalize the idea of importing nuclear waste and break down a 鈥渂ad rap.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not bubbling green fluid like the Simpsons,鈥� program director Matt Solomon told county commissioners in Rio Blanco County at a public meeting in Rangely in September. Nuclear waste is 鈥渋n concrete casks with eraser tip pieces of metal that are cooling down. So it's contained in a park that looks like a concrete industrial park.鈥�
Solomon said building a storage facility for nuclear waste could help the region replace hundreds of lost high-paying jobs due to the closure of the area鈥檚 coal mines and power plants.
Solomon isn鈥檛 a nuclear engineer, but he is a former politician and the leader of the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative, a group looking for an energy alternative to coal.
Landing a nuclear waste facility would bring 鈥渋ts own entity of staffing and workforce and engineers, welders, construction people,鈥� he said.
Only two people were in the audience at this particular gathering. But these forums could have enormous implications not just for people living in northwest Colorado, but the entire state.
The United States has never built a consolidated storage facility for its spent nuclear fuel. But by scouring government documents and video recordings and talking to nuclear engineers, a rough picture emerges.
Heavily fortified trains and trucks would transport this waste along Colorado鈥檚 highways and rail lines. Armed guards would follow it the entire way and police would have to be notified along the route. The concrete casks containing the radioactive waste would end in a facility that looks something like a warehouse far away from people.
Radiation levels would either be checked occasionally by humans with Geiger counters, or eventually robotic sensors.
And there would be a roughly two-square-mile exclusion zone around the facility for health and safety reasons.
Starting quietly
Solomon is purposefully trying to avoid drawing lots of public attention to his early conversations about nuclear waste storage.
At a follow up meeting with the Rio Blanco commissioners in November, he explained why.
鈥淚 want to be cautious in keeping this a focused meeting, not a public hearing because we're not at the public hearing part yet,鈥� he said.
He pointed to environmental activism and public opposition against the idea of creating as a reason to start without public hearings.
鈥淚 want us to stay ahead of that so that we can have data driven, fact-based discussions and remove the emotional outcry from the conversation,鈥� he said.
There was no major public proclamation from the AGNC that northwest Colorado was going to entertain the idea of importing spent nuclear fuel.
This all started quietly and as a bit of a riddle.
In July, a nuclear industry news website set to receive a $150,000 grant from a group called the Energy Communities Alliance.
The post said AGNC would use the grant to 鈥渄evelop education, knowledge exchange, and mutual learning and utilize surveys, focus groups, and interviews to engage community members in discussions about the potential siting of an interim storage facility.鈥�
The announcement didn鈥檛 mention this grant money originated from the U.S. Department of Energy, and that
The government is labeling this process 鈥渃onsent-based siting,鈥� and it鈥檚 expected to formally ask which communities are interested in hosting a nuclear waste facility as early as next fall.
A nuclear future for Colorado?
In northwest Colorado, Solomon and AGNC鈥檚 leaders stress that their talks about importing nuclear waste are preliminary, conceptual and non-binding. But they鈥檙e also speaking favorably about the idea of building a storage facility somewhere in rural Colorado.
In October, in between his meetings with elected officials, He said a lack of public education is responsible for the opposition to taking it in.
鈥淟et鈥檚 be a little more accurate in how we communicate these things so that we can work on correcting the course of this bad rap,鈥� he said. 鈥淟et鈥檚 communicate better. Let鈥檚 communicate more accurately.鈥�
Solomon said that includes telling the public that the places where nuclear waste is currently being stored, including one near Crystal River, Florida,
Solomon said the idea of potentially storing nuclear waste in Colorado was
He tells KUNC that helping to solve the nation鈥檚 nuclear waste storage problem could eventually land Colorado an entire industry of nuclear power and clean energy.
With the nation vowing to triple its nuclear power production by 2050, the stakes are high.
鈥淭here's an opportunity to set up a whole new energy-related industry in this region of our state, and secure some of the jobs and some of the homes and the families in this area,鈥� he said.
Lots of questions
Solomon鈥檚 first meetings with town councils and county commissioners from Grand Junction to Meeker have sparked a flurry of questions and some concerns.
鈥淲hat percentage of that radiation is around the areas of the people, or, like the people or environment around the storage facilities?,鈥� Chrissy Neilsen, the assistant to the Rio Blanco Board of County Commissioners, asked Solomon.
Solomon is not a nuclear engineer, so he takes the questions and writes them in a notebook, promising to get answers from the scientists and the Department of Energy.
Neilsen said, 鈥淲e don't want to put something where we're going to be radiating anything and everything around.鈥�
Pioneers of the West
Tiffany Dickenson, the executive director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, said nuclear energy is becoming more popular in northwest Colorado.
She called nuclear waste storage 鈥渟afe鈥� and said her region might be more willing to host it because it is still an area of energy pioneers.
鈥淲e do oil and gas already, and we understand the risks, and yet our people do that,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is our children that, you know, go and find those jobs.鈥�
She also pointed to the abundance of public lands in northwest Colorado as another reason she doesn鈥檛 want to close the door on nuclear waste storage.
鈥淚t's definitely not like we're all on top of each other, and that there's this real fear that you would have nuclear waste under your house or something like that,鈥� she said.
Solomon and Dickenson also have some support at the statehouse.
State Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat from Dillon, is supportive of looking into the idea of constructing a nuclear waste facility in his region.
鈥淚 appreciate and understand the concerns about health and safety, but it does seem that in today's modern world, here in 2024-2025, that there are ways to very easily secure this waste and ensure that community safety is protected,鈥� he said.
Solomon and the AGNC are planning to ramp up their public outreach on the idea of nuclear waste storage in the spring.
Solomon declined a follow up interview request with KUNC last week to talk about what鈥檚 next with his nuclear waste discussions. In a report he filed last fall for the Department of Energy, he said there was 鈥渘o notable fear or hesitation at the local level鈥� about participating in the government鈥檚 search for a waste storage facility. He also quoted an unnamed town council member as saying they were 鈥渁ll in.鈥�
Meanwhile, the talks are generating a mix of intrigue, fear and mistrust around the state.
On the next episode of Toxic Waste or Economic Fuel?, we ask northwest Colorado residents living in cities transitioning away from coal about what they think of the prospect of importing nuclear waste to their region.
