KY utility regulator is on a nuclear power listening tour. Residents have doubts
Some Eastern Kentuckians believe nuclear energy development could help revitalize an economic slump left behind by fast-exiting coal companies in Appalachia, but serious concerns about timing, waste and security remain top-of-mind as regulators seek public input.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission hosted the first of six information meetings Thursday at Morehead State University, part of the regulator’s ongoing effort to comply with a legislative mandate to ready itself for nuclear site applications.
PSC Chair Angie Hatton said the three-person panel has been on a whirlwind tour across the country visiting nuclear reactor sites and meeting with other state regulators with stakes in Kentucky’s power generation build-out.
Special attention is being paid to small, prefabricated reactors to power data centers and other private-sector projects. Lawmakers believe those small modular reactors will jump-start Kentucky’s nuclear power generation portfolio. They have been the focus of legislation making its way through the General Assembly this year aimed at steering grant money to utilities, developers and tech firms looking to make the Bluegrass State their next home.
“If anything, go back into your communities and start bringing in people to help educate your communities,” said Kenya Stump, executive director of the Office of Energy Policy at the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. “Start having a conversation. Look at your economic-development sites.”
Nuclear development in the commonwealth doesn’t just mean building on-site small modular reactors, Stump added. It can involve ancillary industries that support power generation, such as reactor manufacturing, support trades and line work.
Already, more than 50 Eastern Kentuckians formerly employed by the coal mining industry are employed in the nuclear energy workforce under a program launched last year by Pikeville-based Shaping Our Appalachian Region, SOAR Operating Officer Joshua Ball said.
“We’re at the front of the line in nuclear in Eastern Kentucky, because when companies need people to work and be a part of a team and to do something bigger and bolder than any one of us, you turn your eyes to the hills, where people went under the mountains to dig the coal, they timbered, and they fueled America’s revolution,” he said. “Right now, we’re fueling other forms of energy with the same ingenuity and work ethic that is in the hills and hollers of Eastern Kentucky.”
Residents are doubtful about a nuclear windfall
Bringing those jobs back may not be realistic, environmental groups in Kentucky say.
“SMR nuclear power is unproven, expensive, and decades away from deployment at scale,” Carrie Ray, director of energy programs at the Mountain Association, said in a written statement. “It is a distraction from the real, affordable clean energy solutions that are available right now to benefit ratepayers and the climate.”
Eastern Kentucky has been at the forefront of dialogue about rising energy bills for several years, as population and industrial decline in the region leave fewer customers carrying a greater share of power delivery and infrastructure maintenance costs.
Just over the weekend, the PSC approved a smaller-than-requested rate hike for Kentucky Power customers in the region.
Planning and operational delays mean the up-front costs for even an advanced nuclear reactor could cost small Appalachian communities tens of billions of dollars, said Lorna Mangus, of Morehead, who testified during the Thursday evening listening session. Even then, she added, it would take far too long to retrofit an old power plant into a nuclear site or build a new plant altogether, eliminating realistic short-term benefits for ratepayers who are struggling.
Political infighting in Washington, D.C., has delayed any long-term nuclear waste repository development in the U.S., meaning spent fuel rods stay on site, potentially making nuclear power plants riskier ventures over time.
Plus, many of the upfront costs behind small reactor development are coming from Silicon Valley tech firms seeking cheap land to power AI, said Frankfort resident Anissa Catlett, a longshot Republican candidate running to replace U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.
“I just think all of us Kentuckians — we’re kicked down,” Catlett said. “And we’re spending money, and it’s like a blank check coming out of our pockets.”
