Gillette – BWXT Agreement
On Feb 6, 2024, via Resolution No. 2892, the City of Gillette entered into a Cooperative Agreement with BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC (view document here). The Agreement expires three years from the effective date.
The Agreement states that BWXT, who “engages in research and development of nuclear technologies for energy production purposes”, proposes to locate certain facilities and operations in Gillette and Campbell County to establish a “supply chain”, and Gillette would like to encourage participation in the “nuclear supply chain” by its citizens and businesses. While definitions are provided on pages 4 – 5 of the Agreement, “supply chain” and “nuclear supply chain” are terms not defined.
Page 3 of the Agreement references a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), but it is not attached to the Agreement.
Deployment of nuclear reactors to provide energy to the City of Gillette appears to be equally important as the local manufacturing of reactors. This is seldom emphasized in the news.
Both parties specify their primary interests and proposals as:
- Evaluate BWXT to locate certain facilities and operations related to its BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor (BANR) in the City.
- Gillette wants to evaluate nuclear energy as a source of reliable industrial heat and electricity for the City’s residences and businesses. BWXT wants to develop and deploy its BANR reactor as a potential long term solution for the the City’s needs.
- Investigate whether BWXT’s “Cogen Sets“, or a combination thereof, can provide for the energy needs of the City.
- Evaluate, design, develop, license, manufacture and deploy Cogen Sets for the “supply chain”, certain BWXT facilities and the operations in the City.
- Mutual cooperation with (other) energy partners, such as Black Hills Energy.
- The City will cooperate and enable BWXT to meets its obligations under the WEA (Wyoming Energy Authority) contract. (The WEA Contract is not publicly available, however this August 2023 BWXT grant application likely details some of those obligations.)
- Both parties will conduct:
- systems engineering workshops
- commercial workshops
- business surveys in Gillette
- workshops and conferences with local businesses
- development of a business plan
It is very unfortunate for the residents of Gillette that their local city officials and BWXT overlooked planning any public meetings for them.
The following list outlines any Gillette City Council meetings or Townhalls that provided updates or opportunities for council discussion or public input on the Gillette – BWXT project:
| Nov 1, 2025 Gillette News Record: The long fuse: A timeline of BWXT’s years-long interest in Gillette and northeastern Wyoming |
| Sept 6. 2025 Gillette News Record reported that Campbell County Commission Chair Kelley McCreery alleged “that some of his fellow commissioners have been engaged in secret meetings… about nuclear energy and not being very open about what they talked about in those meetings”. The reporter closed with, “When it comes to transparency, the general rule is the more open you can be, the better, whether you’re the county commission, the city council or the presidential administration.” |
| August 25, 2025 Gillette News Record reported on a Nuclear Town Hall hosted by Gillette City Councilman Jack Clary. Perusing the article it appears this was the first real opportunity for Gillette citizens to speak and ask questions about nuclear activity in their city and county. |
| August 19, 2025 BWXT Project was not on the Meeting Agenda, however the topic was addressed during public comments by WY Senator Troy McKeown (Campbell County, SD24). McKeown questioned the legality and lack of transparency by Gillette signing an NDA with BWXT, and emphasized how citizens are kept in the dark. Gillette News Record reported that the city sent out a Aug 21 press release which stated ‘the city is working to host a series of seminars which would bring in experts in the nuclear field to talk about the industry and answer questions from the public. The first of these meetings should be held sometime over the next month’. We were unable to find any press releases at https://www.gillettewy.gov. |
| July 29, 2025 Gillette News Record: City council members speak on what they learned on Idaho National Laboratory visit. The Record summed it with:While the three were interested in learning more about the topic, at this point that is all there is to it, with no signs for any proposals in the near future.“I’d like to thank the community for allowing me to go, because it’s money that we get through taxes, and that allowed me to get to go, so I’m very appreciative of that, and to them for that,” Smith said.One Gillette resident asked the city to keep the public’s input in mind for any decisions down the line. |
| July 22, 2025 After trip to Idaho National Laboratory, Campbell County commissioners unsure about nuclear’s future in countyGILLETTE, Wyo. — The Campbell County Commission had the opportunity recently to tour the Idaho National Laboratory, a government-operated nuclear research facility, to assess the viability of expanding the county’s energy portfolio into nuclear. Coming back from their trip to report their opinions back to the county, the commissioners still had some glaring concerns.The commission’s chief anxiety surrounded the management of nuclear waste. Not only were they concerned about where nuclear waste produced in the county would be stored — with Commissioner Jerry Means likening what the county could turn into with unattended waste to an armpit — the board members were also unsure of how waste management policy could come back to harm the county.When a company is responsible for the storage of nuclear waste, what happens if that company bankrupts and land that it’s leased to house waste is suddenly unmanaged? It was Campbell County Commission Chairman Kelley McCreery’s understanding that the land would go back to the county… (https://county17.com/2025/07/22/after-trip-to-idaho-national-laboratory-campbell-county-commissioners-unsure-about-nuclears-future-in-county/) |
| July 1, 2025 The Meeting Agenda included the City of Gillette 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, but nothing in the plan appeared to consider BWXT activities or how that might effect “Future Energy Services Projections” or “Future Resource Requirements and Resource Options” for Gillette. Page 276 of the July 1 meeting minutes states, “At this time, neither historical nor forecast data suggest that new supply-side resource options are necessary within the next five years to ten years. As such, the City is currently not evaluating any new resource options.” In the meeting minutes it is not apparent if nuclear energy was discussed or considered as a future energy resource option for Gillette citizens or businesses. |
| April 1, 2025 On page 182 of the April 1, 2025 meeting minutes “Public Infrastructure Investment for New Manufacturing Facilities” is listed as a Tier 2 goal for economic development. It is not readily apparent to any reader if this item is in reference to any BWXT related facilities. |
| March 10, 2025 The City Council held a Special Meeting to “engage in discussion amongst itself regarding potential future goals for the City of Gillette” – after they had their pre-meeting dinner. Though the Gillette – BWXT Agreement is certainly part of future goals for Gillette, apparently the public was not invited to speak at this meeting or ask questions. |
| Feb 15, 2025 Gillette News Record reported on a Gillette citizen asking “that something be done to foster better communication between the city council and the rest of the community“. |
| Sept 2022 EDA announced 56 investments from September 9-14, 2022 $2,789,869, matched by $593,423 in local investment, to Campbell County/City of Gillette, Gillette/Campbell County, Wyoming, to support construction of infrastructure necessary to support building the Pronghorn Industrial Park, to attract heavy industrial companies to locate commercial production facilities in Campbell County, Wyoming… |
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