If you scrolled through Nashville news this week, you may have seen a headline that made you do a double take. Tennessee is now one of five states in the running for a major federal energy program, and it involves nuclear waste.
Before you start rerouting your trip, take a breath. This is not something happening tomorrow, and it is not something that changes your visit to Nashville. But it is a genuinely interesting story, and one that a lot of locals have opinions about, so let’s break it down.
What Actually Happened
According to WSMV4, Tennessee was selected as one of five states being considered to host what the U.S. Department of Energy is calling a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus. The other four finalists are Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho.
WSMV4 reports that these campuses are meant to strengthen and modernize the country’s nuclear fuel cycle, covering everything from fuel fabrication and enrichment to reprocessing used nuclear fuel. In plain terms, this is about handling nuclear material at nearly every stage, not just storing waste in a warehouse somewhere…