Follow-up details from Nov 30th BWXT-Gillette Meeting attended by approximately 300 residents:
According to David Neri with the Gillette News Record:
…BWXT, following the signing of a three-year cooperation agreement between the company and the City of Gillette in 2024, is proposing to build a 150,000- to 250,000-square foot facility plant east of Gillette in the next five years, creating about 200 construction jobs during the process and approximately 200 full-time jobs at the facility once the plant is up and running in late 2030.
The facility would create TRISO fuel from enriched uranium, made up of a small uranium core coated in layers of carbon material to prevent the release of fission product, even at high temperatures, which would then be transported to nuclear plants in other communities. Parker described the facility as a chemical processing plant “that happens to use uranium.”
Parker said that about 160 of the 200 full-time jobs at the facility would be the plant technicians and operators, requiring only a two-year degree or certification program. He noted that the presence of Gillette College means that the community has the infrastructure to train and fill these positions locally, as well as produce other jobs through construction and transportation efforts.
…While not mentioned during the presentation itself, in an earlier sit-down with the News Record the week before, Parker also spoke on the current disposal protocols for low-level waste, such as PPE equipment. Once used up, this equipment and other low-level waste is transported for storage at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility in the state of Washington as part of the Northwest Interstate Compact, of which Wyoming is a signatory….
Northwest Interstate Compact (on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management)
Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility – Hanford, WA
Low-Level Waste Burial Facilities, NRC Feb 2025