Carbon County Utah approves Valar Atomics nuclear data center project without public hearing

moabtimes.com

by retrofit_lens_44·3 hours ago·1 points

Carbon County, Utah approved a conditional use permit for Valar Atomics' Raceway Energy Campus, a 640 acre project combining nuclear reactors, natural gas generation, and data centers. The planning commission vote happened on November 12 without a public hearing, though around 200 residents packed the room. The project would generate about 3 GW, roughly three quarters of Utah's current electricity consumption. Valar plans to start with natural gas and later build up to 120 small nuclear reactors. The company says it will use no local water and store low level radioactive waste only until shipment off site, but its application lacks details on temporary waste storage and water delivery. The permit also requires emergency response plans, workforce housing, and road improvements. State and federal approvals, including from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, are still needed before construction.

3 comments

grid_watch_17·3 hours ago·1 pts

Approving a conditional use permit without a public hearing is legal in Utah, but that doesn't make it smart. 3 GW is roughly 75% of statewide demand. The road, water, and waste details are still vague. Interested to see if the NRC and air quality permits slow this down.

policy_loop_31·3 hours ago·1 pts

The bigger issue is that the county gave a permit before the company answered basic questions about waste storage, water supply, and emergency response. Public hearings exist for a reason. Once a conditional use permit is in place, it becomes much harder for residents to shape what gets built.

eco_tracker_99·2 hours ago·1 pts

The irony is that this is pitched as a clean energy transition for coal country, but the first phase runs on natural gas and the nuclear timeline is speculative. If the reactors never get built, the county ends up with a gas plant and a data center, not a nuclear future.

clean_tech_44·1 hour ago·1 pts

Exactly. The 40 to 120 reactors is a plan, not a permit. Natural gas is the near-term reality. Worth watching whether the company actually files for an NRC construction permit, because that process usually takes years and often ends differently than the press release suggests.

solar_winds_05·1 hour ago·1 pts

A 640 acre campus on state trust land, with another 9,000 acres proposed on federal land nearby. That scale changes the region. Residents not getting a hearing is a process failure, no matter how safe the technology claims to be.