As President Trump’s former Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, I am proud to be a part of a company that is leading the way in advancing the president’s vision for energy dominance.
Radiant’s proposed factory will bring hundreds of jobs to Natrona County, deliver on President Trump’s vision to expand American nuclear energy, and let Wyoming share in the profits that come from one of the state’s most valuable resources – uranium.
Wyoming leads the country in uranium mining – including the uranium we will use – but despite this rich nuclear heritage there’s confusion around one important subject – spent fuel.
Spent fuel is what some people like to call “nuclear waste.” While Hollywood and The Simpsons have overinflated the fear of spent fuel, the reality is it’s riskier to live near a landfill or any heavy manufacturing facility than near a nuclear facility. Spent fuel has been stored reliably and safely across more than half of the states in our country for decades.
Here at Radiant, we’re building the world’s first portable microreactors. Each shipping container-sized reactor can go anywhere and provide 1 megawatt of power – the equivalent of 1,000 homes – without the need for refueling for up to five years.
While big utility-scale nuclear reactors use massive amounts of uranium that require vast pools of water to keep cool, the fuel we’ll use is a poppy-sized particle called tri-structural isotropic (TRISO).
These tiny particles of uranium are encased in multiple layers of silicon carbide and carbon – sort of like an Everlasting Gobstopper from Willy Wonka. That coating makes TRISO fuel “meltdown proof” and widely viewed as the safest form of nuclear fuel in the world.
Each reactor uses a very small amount of fuel – about the volume of two Walmart-sized gas grill propane tanks.
These reactors would be built right here in Wyoming (and generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for city and county budgets), and, thanks to the amount and composition, when our customers ship the reactors back after five years of use, we’ll pull the spent fuel out and be able to temporarily store it in concrete dry casks, not giant water pools.
Built to withstand natural disasters, fires, water immersion, and even high-energy impacts like aircraft crashes or ballistic attacks, the track record on dry casks is second to none.
There has never been a recorded leak of dry cask storage – even in active war zones. In addition to these highly-engineered casks, Radiant will have armed security onsite, surveillance, intrusion detection, and strict access controls.
Thanks to President Trump’s recent executive orders to move the federal government to quickly select a national repository site for spent fuel, our plan is to send spent fuel there.
Radiant seeks regulatory certainty to meet President Trump’s energy goals on private land to temporarily and safely store our meltproof spent fuel on site (our factory is safely located over a mile away from any homes) until the federal repository is selected.
Our factory will not be a permanent waste repository or disposal site and we will not import spent fuel that doesn’t originate here. This will be a closed-loop system.
Wyoming – and Natrona County in particular – has a strong history as an energy leader. It holds that status by embracing innovative technologies that revolutionize the field. Hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, and coal mining are all examples of once cutting-edge technology championed right here. That’s a big reason why we want to be in Wyoming.
In addition, one can’t support mining and nuclear energy and not support the entire life cycle of what we’re mining out of the earth – spent fuel storage included. Being pro-nuclear is being pro-spent fuel storage and pro-mining.
What we’re building continues Wyoming’s strong legacy by creating a full-cycle energy economy that doesn’t just extract raw materials but transforms them into valuable products right here in Wyoming.
Let’s not let the unfamiliar hold us back from the chance to build something that puts Wyoming at the center of America’s energy future.
Dr. Rita Baranwal previously served as President Trump’s Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. She is the Chief Nuclear Officer for Radiant.
