State Rep. Bill Allemand, R- Casper, now goes by the nickname “Mr. No-Nuclear.”
It’s a title he earned from his fellow representatives due to his fierce opposition against plans by energy developer Radiant Nuclear to bring nuclear microreactors, and their spent nuclear waste, near Bar Nunn. He says the concerns of his supporters are far more important than his own feelings on the matter.
“This is not something I wanted, this is something that fell in my lap,” he told Cowboy State Daily, adding that, “72% of my constituents are against it. That is the reason I’m against it. Because my people who voted for me asked me to be against it.”
But Allemand is just one of a growing number of voices trying to make themselves heard in the debate, which most recently spiraled into a public shouting match during a Bar Nunn Town Council meeting Tuesday night.
Voice of the People
The Bar Nunn nuclear debate has grown highly contentious, with Allemand even saying it has begun to strain his personal relationships with fellow decision makers.
Allemand traveled to Bar Nunn on Tuesday to inform the town council of a poll he conducted showing most of his constituents oppose the idea of a nuclear facility in their neighborhood. Local leaders, he claimed, were not interested in listening to his constituents’ concerns.
“Peter Boyer, the mayor, told me that I was out of my lane, that the business of Bar Nunn was not mine,” Allemand said. “He told me to ‘sit down and shut up’ and it did not sit well with me.”
“Peter Boyer made it quite clear that if Jesus Christ himself brought that poll to him, he would not believe it,” he added.
Boyer, according to Allemand, had previously been his “very, very good friend” and had even served on Allemand’s election committee. Now, in the wake of his nuclear advocacy, Allemand says Boyer won’t return his phone calls.
Boyer, in response, acknowledged the strain between the pair, but challenged Allemand to meet with him one-on-one.
“I feel like if Bill is a friend,” Boyer said, “then he would come to me as a friend, and we could actually have a reasonable discussion about this.”
Allemand also disclosed that his relationship to Bar Nunn Town Councilman Dan Sabrosky has also taken a turn for the worst. While Allemand once considered Sabrosky a “best friend” and “confidant,” he says they also do not speak via phone.
Allemand said that if his closest allies won’t listen to him, he plans to recruit others that will hopefully carry more sway with decision makers. One such individual is a councilman from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a pro-nuclear town which Allemand claimed is also against Radiant’s plans.
“[Radiant keeps] hanging it over our head that ‘if you don’t like this, we will take it to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where they welcome us” Allemand said. “They are not being welcome there.”
“I hope to have [the councilman] here — I will be paying his airplane, his hotels and everything out of my own pocket—I hope to have him here at two meetings, one in Bar Nunn and one in Gilette,” he added. “I’m wanting to bring a balance to these meetings.”
State Overreach
Boyer said that after devoting significant time toward studying the project, he is in favor of Radiant’s proposal for the way it will benefit the people of his city.
“I really feel that Radiant is going to bring jobs and energy to the whole state, it’s not just Bar Nunn, this is about the whole state,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I know there are a lot of detractors who don’t like me for that opinion, but that’s fine.”
While Bar Nunn has less say in the matter than county officials in approving Radiant’s project, Boyer thinks his city will broadly benefit from supporting it. It’s why he said he was so disappointed to see Allemand show up at Tuesday’s council meeting prepared for a public argument.
“I would say that this nuclear debate has definitely put a strain on our relationship,” Boyer said of Allemand.
Allemand’s decision to present his constituent poll, Boyer argued, was problematic due to several lingering questions about how it was conducted. The mayor acknowledged there may be pushback from Allemand’s constituents toward the project, but he did not accept the representative’s 72% figure.
Allemand during Tuesday’s meeting also expressed opposition toward Bar Nunn having its own police force, rather than relying on Natrona County police. Allemand’s insistence in being involved in these conversations at a local level, Boyer argued, is an overreach of authority as a state representative and drowns out his own voice in the matter.
“[Allemand] has a lot of jobs, but none of his jobs entail—and he’s stepping out of line, way out of line — to come down to our level at the municipal level and tell us that we need to not get a police department,” Boyer said. “To come to a council meeting like that and represent himself as if he is one of my constituents that this is something I shouldn’t do, is completely disingenuous.”
“I don’t see other state representatives doing these things,” he added.
Boyer said the nuclear debate in Bar Nunn boils down to an unwillingness by stakeholders to listen to one another. The only way to find a solution, he said is for these politicians to put aside their egos and have genuine solution-oriented conversations.
“Everyone needs to communicate with each other and really get down to the root of the issue and start talking to each other,” he said. “We just need to talk to each other and stop talking at each other.”
The Dangers of Nuclear
Jennifer Hopkins, a resident of Bar Nunn told Cowboy State Daily she is also working on a community survey, the results of which are forthcoming, to make the voices of her neighbors heard to key decision makers.
Hopkins explained she witnessed the events at Tuesday’s town council meeting and lamented that her leaders could not see eye to eye with one another.
“Why are some just pushing so hard for it and not hearing the voice of the Bar Nunn people?” she asked. “It’s disheartening to see what’s happening.”
Decision makers, she said, need to listen to their constituents and base their decision off what they hear.
While Hopkins herself remains undecided on the matter, she said the people of Bar Nunn are educating themselves on the issue and have “lots to say” about it. The disposal of spent fuel, she said, remains a top concern for residents she has spoken to.
Erica Bickford, director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Storage and Transportation, delivered a presentation to the Bar Nunn Town Council in July. During that meeting she addressed local concerns about moving and storing spent nuclear fuel, which is a component of Radiant’s Bar Nunn plan.
Bickford explained she had visited several similar nuclear sites across the country with spent fuel stored outside. She had even walked on or touched several spent fuel sites with her hand.
Despite this, she said the type of material that would be stored outside a potential Bar Nunn site would be considered “high level.”
"It would still be considered high level (material),” she said. “Pretty much any material that's being used to power a nuclear reactor would be considered high level nuclear material."
“I don’t understand the details of the project, I understand its Radiant and they plan to make microreactors and do some refueling there,” she added. “I don’t know the details and specifics of the type of fuel they plan to use.”
She continued by explaining the storage and transportation of nuclear fuel is generally safe, however.
Jackson Walker can be reached at walker@cowboystatedaily.com.
