Published January 26, 2023
By Christine Reed
The Nuclear Energy Research Center (NERC) at the UW School of Energy Resources (SER) has released five white papers on nuclear-related topics relevant to Wyoming.
The objective of the NERC white paper series is to share preliminary research conducted on nuclear-related energy issues in the state as they emerge to serve as a timely and relevant public resource.
“With the emergence of a possible nuclear industry in Wyoming, we felt that it was important to provide some general overview of how nuclear will fit into our current regulatory framework and to investigate possible state-specific issues,” says NERC Co-director Tara Righetti. “We hope that these papers will not only provide a foundational resource for stakeholders hoping to rapidly get up to speed on nuclear in Wyoming, but also to stimulate further exploration into related issues on the topic.”
In addition to Righetti, contributing authors include UW College of Law student Nathan Wise, SER Associate Lecturer and Wyoming legal expert Kris Koski, and SER Associate Research Scientist Selena Gerace.
These projects were supported with program development funds as part of the Emerging Market Analysis (EMA) initiative led by Idaho National Lab (INL). The collaborative effort includes researchers from INL, University of Michigan, University of Alaska, MIT, and Boise State University.
The recently produced research include:
— Summary – Legal Analysis of Siting a Nuclear Facility in Wyoming, which provides an overview of the state and federal statutes that are applicable to siting a nuclear facility in Wyoming, including the taxation of nuclear energy, as well as the sale of electricity generated from a nuclear facility.
—Microreactors and PURPA, which provides an examination of the microreactors under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA).
—Wyoming Residents’ Perspectives, Desires and Values Related to Nuclear Energy in Wyoming. This summary builds off a preliminary study conducted by the SER in 2020 to evaluate the ‘social license’ or the level to which Wyoming residents support or oppose different forms and amounts of energy development. The updated study determines what opportunities and barriers are present to the adoption of nuclear technologies in Wyoming.
—An Overview of the Regulatory Framework for Nuclear Microreactor Applications in Wyoming, which examines the existing state, county, and city zoning laws required for the approval for a nuclear project.
—A Summary of Western Interconnection State Renewable and Clean Energy Standards- Application to Nuclear Generation on Market Share, which delves into the economic and market impacts due to low carbon fuel standards and greenhouse gas emissions’ limitations.
“We are very grateful for the collaborative support that we have received to prepare these analyses,” adds Righetti. “These are important conversations for launching nuclear activities in Wyoming and we are working towards our mission of building capacity on campus. I am pleased to get this work out into the research community while we continue to develop them into more traditional academic outputs.”
Wyoming stakeholders and interested parties are encouraged to read and discuss material in the white paper series and may send comments or questions directly to the NERC co-directors.
To read the most recent white papers, visit the NERC website and download the latest versions. The authors of the papers are solely responsible for the content of their contributions. Authors may post updated versions of the paper to provide readers with their most current findings as it moves through pre-publication phases.
Copyright to papers in the SER Centers of Excellence remains with the authors or their assignees. Users should respect copyright of the working paper and give proper attribution when quoting from material. (Please reference SER’s copyright notice for more details).
About NERC
The Nuclear Energy Research Center is focused on interdisciplinary nuclear-energy capacity building across UW, and dedicated to developing collaborative relationships both external and internal to UW focused on nuclear energy research. Given that increased deployment of nuclear energy faces both technical and non-technical challenges, NERC focuses on both the social sciences and the hard sciences to help further energy solutions.
