Tennessee’s growing nuclear industry has a committed booster in the state’s government.
Leaders in the state capital, Nashville, agree with local boosters in Oak Ridge and East Tennessee that the state has what it takes to become a national center for nuclear power, nuclear medicine and other nuclear technologies, with major players and a robust support ecosystem.
“We see this real opportunity, especially in the Oak Ridge area — as well as other areas of the state — to be the home for so much of the new nuclear technology,” said the state’s chief operating officer, Brandon Gibson. “We’ve got a trained workforce. We have citizens who know and understand the nuclear space. And then we have the crown jewel, which is Oak Ridge National Lab.”
To take advantage of this opportunity, Governor Bill Lee appointed a Nuclear Energy Advisory Council and partnered with the Legislature to create a $50 million Nuclear Fund.
The fund — besides offering help to businesses that have located in the state — is a signal to others that they will find a friendly environment in Tennessee.
“The state competes with a number of other states to get industry to move to Tennessee,” Gibson said. “And oftentimes that involves economic development incentives of one kind or another. Those incentives can be used for a lot of different things. Sometimes it’s site preparation work. Sometimes it’s construction or other issues.”
The fund’s first recipient was Type One Energy, which is building a prototype fusion device near Oak Ridge in Anderson County. The company and Lee announced the project in February 2024.
Lee appointed the 22-member Tennessee Nuclear Energy Advisory Council in July 2023, with members representing a wide range of stakeholders, including state environmental and emergency management leaders, federal and local governments, and existing industry players. Jeff Smith, the lab’s former interim director, was appointed to represent ORNL.
“The beauty of having a rich history in Tennessee is that we’ve got a lot of really smart people who understand the nuclear industry and what our potential is,” Gibson said. “The governor has always said that government alone is not the answer to our greatest challenges, but it’s the people of Tennessee who really hold the answers to our greatest challenges.”
The group was asked to produce two reports, one interim, one final. The interim report, delivered in December 2023, recommended two broad strategies: first, to advance new nuclear projects, in particular the small modular reactor being developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority at a site on the Clinch River, and second, to build the workforce and supply chain for the nuclear industry.
The group’s final report is due at the end of October 2024.