The latest wave of executive orders from the desk of President Donald Trump seeks to speed up the development of the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure and overhaul the industry’s safety regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Though no nuclear power is generated in Kentucky, officials and companies have taken strides in recent years to lay the groundwork for atomic energy developments.
Republican state Sen. Danny Carroll has been one of the leading voices when it comes to nuclear technology and its applications in the commonwealth.
The Paducah lawmaker – a self-proclaimed “nuclear energy nerd” – carried both the bill that lifted Kentucky’s decadeslong moratorium on new nuclear plants in 2017 and the measure that created the state’s nonregulatory nuclear authority in 2023. Trump’s executive orders would accelerate research efforts and approvals of new nuclear reactor designs, reconsider some radiation standards used to protect workers and the public from health risks and restructure the NRC itself, among other steps. Carroll said he thinks they come at a crucial time.
“These are historical times, not just for our state or our country – for this world. We're seeing the conversion to nuclear energy. And to me, you know, it's almost like when [man-made] electricity was first invented. I think it's to that scale,” Carroll said. “That is the future.”
The changes could pay dividends for some projects in the works across the country, like Global Laser Enrichment’s prospective uranium enrichment facility in Paducah. The planned $1 billion, first-of-its-kind facility in western Kentucky is expected to use an innovative laser process – one that’s still being tested at a North Carolina facility – to enrich depleted nuclear tails in storage at the nearby former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Right now, CEO Stephen Long said GLE is on track to have the plant operational by “no later than 2030,” though his statement to WKMS also indicated it was too soon to tell how Trump’s executive order could support an accelerated schedule.
“These directives recognize the critical role of nuclear energy and a robust fuel supply chain in ensuring American energy dominance, as well as the necessary actions to accelerate deployment,” Long wrote. “The administration has underscored the importance of expanding domestic conversion and enrichment capacity … [and] our proposed Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility is uniquely positioned to support both of these objectives, advancing innovation and U.S. technology leadership and enhancing the nation’s energy security.”
Moving forward, Carroll hopes Trump’s executive order can spur nuclear energy developments of all sorts across the state and expedite the “very slow and very costly” licensing and approval process for new nuclear facilities.
Though there are currently no plans to build nuclear power plants in the state, Carroll said the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority has “identified some sites” for potential development.
Carroll said, in the future, some of the state’s largest power providers could likely afford to build nuclear reactors, and smaller utilities, like electrical cooperatives, could partner on facilities. He thinks his home city – particularly the site of the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a uranium production facility that ceased operations in 2013 – is a good candidate for a small modular reactor similar to the one in the works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
“Our DOE site here in Paducah would be a great site for that,” he said. “There are some concerns about the seismic activity, but I don't think there's anything that couldn't be overcome with certain design changes.”
Recently, several states have put together major initiatives to attract nuclear developments to their part of the country. The Texas Legislature is currently weighing a proposal to put $350 million towards grants aimed at the industry, and Tennessee upped its commitment to nuclear advancements last year, adding $10 million for a total of $60 million in nuclear grant funding.
Kentucky set aside $40 million as a part of the legislation that created the state’s nuclear authority. Some of that money is going towards the operations of that entity, as well as those of the state’s Energy Planning and Inventory Commission, and $10 million was used to set up a similarly motivated grant program for nuclear developments.
Carroll wants to see that number grow tenfold in Kentucky’s next budget, to $100 million. He sees nuclear energy as the pathway to attracting more industry of all stripes to the state. That includes businesses that demand large amounts of power, like the “hyperscale” data center recently proposed in Oldham County.
“I think, at this point, the one thing that we're really lacking is sufficient investment by the state,” he added. “Kentucky has always been known for having low energy costs. That's been one of our main attractors for getting business and industry to our state, and I think nuclear is the future of that.”
Carroll, citing rolling blackouts experienced by some Kentuckians during intense winter weather in recent years, said nuclear power should be a key component of the state’s baseload energy in years to come.
“To say that we're ‘headed towards’ a time when we don't have sufficient energy in this state – that's inaccurate. We're there. No question about it. We're there,” he said. “It's important that we create a larger baseload, especially as we start decommissioning some of the coal-fired plants that we have in the state.”
Carroll said the nuclear industry has the potential to be “a brand new economic driver” for Kentucky, if the state plays its cards right and with “a sense of urgency.”
“Our goal is not just to get nuclear reactors in Kentucky. It's to create an entire nuclear ecosystem within the commonwealth that's taking advantage of all aspects of nuclear energy development: research, industrialization, building, parts, education, whatever it might be. We want to take full advantage of it,” he said.
