It’s another day and another deal for Wyoming’s booming uranium sector, which has been ramping up to fuel next-generation nuclear reactors like TerraPower’s Kemmerer project and supply fuel manufacturers like BWXT’s planned Gillette plant.
The latest agreement to hit the deck is with Taiwan, a self-ruled, democratic island off the coast of China that supplies about 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips and is critically hungry for reliable, low-carbon power to keep that industry running.
Taiwan has projected its power needs will increase 6.5 times over the next three years, as artificial intelligence drives new electricity demand, prompting President Lai Ching-te to explore restarting two nuclear power plants — despite strong pushback from antinuclear activists.
Lai, in his translated remarks, said Taiwan and Wyoming have been collaborating for quite some time, and that the new agreements between Wyoming and Taiwan entities build on previous memorandums of understanding, including one signed last year on quantum computing between Wyoming Energy Authority and Taiwan Association of Quantum Computing and Information Technology.
“At present, we face supply-chain restructuring and the challenges brought about by the AI era,” Lai said. “Energy security and industrial resilience have thus become important issues of global concern.
"Wyoming’s strengths in critical minerals and low-carbon technology make it an indispensable partner in Taiwan’s transition,” he added. "Going forward we anticipate continuing to leverage our respective industrial advantages and to bolster collaboration as we work hand-in-hand to build more secure and resilient democratic supply chains.”
Uranium Momentum Building
Wyoming Mining Association Director Travis Deti told Cowboy State Daily that uranium deals are happening at light speed right now — too fast for him to track.
“But we’re seeing a lot of exploration going on,” he said. “We’re seeing new companies coming in and looking at the resource to develop it.”
Deals like the one just announced between Wyoming and Taiwan can only strengthen all of that, he said.
Production has already begun to pick up steam, with companies like Uranium Energy Corp., Ur-Energy, Strata Energy, Cameco Resources, and Energy Fuels producing 474,432 pounds of uranium in 2025.
That’s a tiny fraction, though, of where the state could be if things return to previous highs. At peak, in the 1970s, Wyoming produced 12 million pounds of ore. In 2015, it produced 2.6 million pounds of ore.
The figures show Wyoming has lots of room to grow its uranium mining sector, Deti added, and, deals like the one with Taiwan just underscore how vital Wyoming’s uranium is becoming both nationally and internationally.
“With the significant demand for electricity in the country, largely driven by AI and data centers — which is not going to stop, whether we do it in Wyoming or somewhere else — the energy demand is going to be there,” Deti said. “We’re going to need everything we can get. That means coal, oil and gas, and it means nuclear … This deal just bodes well for our producers. It’s a good thing for Wyoming.”
Taiwan Eyes $250B In American Chip Manufacturing
Taiwan, as a small island, imports roughly 90% of its energy, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Consulate General Hong Wei Yen told Cowboy State Daily during a visit to Wyoming in March. That makes the island particularly sensitive to energy security, as well as carbon constraints.
Yen sees a strong opportunity for Wyoming to export energy to Taiwan, and said the country is also interested in learning from Wyoming about things like carbon capture, storage and utilization.
But Taiwan is not just interested in buying commodities from Wyoming. The country has $250 billion it wants to invest in chip manufacturing, Yen said, and Wyoming is among the states where he could see that being “another aspect for us to have more cooperation.”
“We’re also very interested in the carbon capture, storage and utilization technology, which can be used in Taiwan,” he said. “You do a very advanced development of (carbon capture) technology, which Taiwan can learn from Wyoming.”
Taiwan, meanwhile, specializes in smart machinery, which he thinks could be helpful to Wyoming, considering its labor crunch, for a variety of industries, ranging from agriculture to energy.
“For example, years ago, there’s a company in Taiwan that developed a kind of robot to help farmers pick and sort their fruit,” he said. And the price was only half of those produced in Europe … I think that’s where I see opportunities for Taiwan and Wyoming to help each other.”
Follow The Yellow Cake Road
The modular nuclear reactor agreement was announced during a meeting between Taiwan President Lai and Gov. Mark Gordon, who is in Taiwan on a trade mission with several Wyoming officials, including Wyoming Energy Authority’s Rob Creager.
It was one of three agreements signed between the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources and Taiwan’s National Central University, National Atomic Research Institute, and its Industrial Technology Research Institute.
Gordon, in a media statement, framed the most recent agreements with Taiwan as focused on “practical, forward-looking” work, such as advanced nuclear, critical minerals, and other energy technologies.
In previous interviews with Cowboy State Daily, Gordon has been explicit that he doesn’t want a top-down industrial policy. He wants to build a reputation for the state as a place where serious projects can land and grow because Wyoming has not just a business-friendly climate, but also the right toolkit.
That means streamlining permits and hookups, as well as ensuring there are career-technical programs that can connect students with real-world manufacturing and energy careers.
It also means using Wyoming as a testbed for cutting-edge energy systems, such as Japan’s carbon-capture pilot, which is located at the Integrated Test Center in Gillette. That’s a partnership that can be commercialized globally, Gordon has said, with Wyoming manufacturers potentially supplying specialized components.
The MOU with Taiwan on modular nuclear reactors could play out similarly, with Wyoming serving as a testbed that aims to export both technology and components, instead of just raw materials.
To Deti, however, it all sounds like the tune of the same song, ending in the chorus line of, “We need more uranium.”
“The more uranium we mine, the more jobs we create, the more revenue we generate for the state,” Deti said. “The more we go down this road of either small reactors or microreactors or conventional reactors, you have to fuel them, and you gotta fuel them with Wyoming uranium.”
