Oil City News23%
Eyeing 2031 to start production, BWXT advances $500M nuclear fuel plant project by Gillette 42%
By Klark Byrd43%
7/24/2026, 12:36:36 PM
Keywords: Bwxt, Nuclear Fuel Plant, Gillette, Campbell County, Triso Fuel, Kairos Power, Energy, Wyoming
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, Framing Effect, and Confirmation Bias, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 16% saturation with 207 hits. Analysis detected 1,233 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,295 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 45.9% and a BS Rank of 42% (12,839 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 58.70% of the article peer group.
Gillette and Campbell County residents and leaders attended a BWXT community briefing by the dozens at Gillette College on Thursday, July 23, 2026.
(Klark Byrd, County 17)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — Backed by a $100 million state grant and tech-sector power demand, BWXT Advanced Technologies and partner Kairos Power pitched plans for a $500 million nuclear fuel manufacturing hub at Pronghorn Industrial Park during a community briefing Thursday at the Gillette College Technical Education Center.
The proposed facility, planned to be fully operational by 2031, aims to anchor Campbell County’s next energy era by turning enriched uranium into TRISO nuclear fuel while promising high-tech local jobs without producing nuclear waste.
Proactive outreach, land acquisition
Erik Nygaard, BWXT’s vice president of commercial microreactor products, said the company is launching the land acquisition process now that it’s identified Pronghorn Industrial Park as its preferred site.
The park was one of five Campbell County sites BWXT evaluated during selection.
It stood out primarily because of local government investments to make it shovel-ready for a project of BWXT’s scale, Nygaard said.
BWXT has chosen the Pronghorn Industrial Site to locate its Gillette nuclear fuel manufacturing facility.
(Klark Byrd, County 17)
“The fact that there were utilities available gave us increased certainty around the schedule that we’re looking to deploy,” he said.
“That gave us confidence that this is a very good site for us to consider our future home.”
As the land acquisition and site planning move forward, Gillette can expect more public briefings and opportunities to address company executives directly — dialogue BWXT hopes will foster trust as it expands Wyoming’s and Campbell County’s energy portfolios.
“This is still a long journey,” Nygaard told County 17 after the briefing.
“There is still a lot to do … but we’re really excited and encouraged by the momentum we have on our back and feel like the community’s behind us.”
Nygaard added that nuclear energy currently enjoys rare bipartisan backing in Washington, D.C., where both the executive and legislative branches view advanced nuclear power as vital to national security and energy independence.
“The policies are there.
The support is there at the state and federal level and local level, too,” Nygaard said.
“And it’s up to us as an industry to make good on that because the country’s counting on us to do that.”
Fresh TRISO fuel, project timeline
Addressing local questions about safety, Nygaard detailed BWXT’s corporate history and the specific fuel type planned for Gillette.
With a 165-year legacy that includes manufacturing nuclear reactors for U.S.
Navy aircraft carriers and submarines, BWXT already operates multiple nuclear fuel fabrication plants across the U.S. and Canada.
The proposed Gillette plant will only manufacture fresh TRISO fuel — uranium kernels encapsulated in triple-coated ceramic layers engineered to withstand extreme temperatures.
Nygaard repeatedly said the facility will not generate, receive or store spent nuclear fuel or high-level nuclear waste.
That guarantee may prove pivotal for community acceptance in Wyoming.
Last October, Radiant Industries abandoned plans for a nuclear microreactor facility in Natrona County and relocated to Tennessee due to state statutes prohibiting spent nuclear fuel storage from off-site use and extensive community pushback.
Erik Nygaard, BWXT’s vice president of commercial microreactor products, speaks Thursday, July 23, 2026, during a community briefing at Gillette College.
(Klark Byrd, County 17)
BWXT’s plans have faced scrutiny over the last two years.
The Campbell County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in late 2025 opposing the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the county.
State Sen.
Troy McKeown and some county commissioners accused the Gillette City Council of holding “secret meetings” after the city signed a non-disclosure agreement with BWXT in early 2024.
City officials maintained the agreement was a standard measure to protect proprietary information.
State officials have backed BWXT’s fresh-fuel approach, with Gov.
Mark Gordon approving a $100 million state matching grant in December 2025 to support the Gillette facility.
The company is finalizing conceptual designs and operational scale before it starts preliminary design, site characterization and Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing submissions.
On-site construction is expected to begin in 2028, with facility startup in 2030.
After the commissioning process, the company will begin full-scale commercial production of TRISO fuel in 2031.
BWXT has already expanded its state supply chain, growing from zero approved Wyoming vendors in 2022 to five or six local suppliers today.
Kairos Power and commercial energy demand
Key to BWXT’s operation in Gillette is securing demand for its TRISO fuel.
Enter partner Kairos Power.
Micah Hackett, vice president of fuels and materials for Kairos Power, said the two companies — once competitors — joined forces to align fuel manufacturing scale with reactor deployment.
Micah Hackett, vice president of fuels and materials for Kairos Power, discussed his company’s partnership with BWXT on Thursday, July 23, 2026, during a community briefing at Gillette College.
(Klark Byrd, County 17)
Founded over nine years ago to commercialize fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors, Kairos Power has a goal to deliver clean energy at costs competitive with natural gas.
Hackett explained that Kairos uses a vertically integrated model to drive down supply chain costs.
The company recently produced 60,000 mock TRISO fuel pebbles to test automated production processes and ensure safety.
Kairos broke ground earlier this year in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on its Hermes demonstration reactor, which will serve as the proving ground for its commercial reactors.
The company has also secured commercial off-take agreements to drive fuel production.
In 2024, Kairos signed a corporate power deal with Google to supply 500 megawatts of electricity for Google’s data centers.
It also signed a power purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to deliver power directly to the regional grid, Hackett said.
Workforce development
While BWXT plans to produce fuel to power the world, a local and skilled workforce will power the Gillette facility.
Janell Oberlander, president of Gillette College, opened the briefing by announcing that the college achieved candidacy for accreditation and that the regional Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor Tech Hub recently secured a $40 million investment.
The funding includes an intended $31 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration alongside matching funds from stakeholder partners in the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium.
As the nation’s only designated nuclear technology hub, the consortium aims to accelerate reactor deployment, strengthen domestic fuel production and expand the nuclear workforce across Wyoming and Idaho.
Oberlander said Gillette College’s portion of the funds will expand its construction trades, instrumentation, electronics and chemical technology programs.
Gillette College joins Western Wyoming Community College, the College of Eastern Idaho and Idaho State University in developing specialized manufacturing and STEM curricula for the sector.
The college will break ground in spring 2027 on a new energy learning center on the north end of Pronghorn Plaza, offering dedicated space for BWXT to collaborate with students.
“Expanding our energy footprint in the way that we’re about to do is really exciting,” Oberlander said.
BWXT material scientist Sabrina McCoy answered questions about TRISO nuclear fuel at one of the company’s informational displays on Thursday, July 23, 2026, at Gillette College.
(Klark Byrd, County 17)
Dozens of attendees gathered around BWXT informational displays at the Technical Education Center to discuss company plans and TRISO fuel manufacturing.
Following the presentation, several residents voiced cautious optimism.
Tate Daly, a resident who works in nuclear quality assurance for L&H Industrial, said he attended to evaluate BWXT’s long-term commitment to the area.
“I think my biggest takeaway is they want to be a part of the community and they want to elevate the community as a whole through their work here and ideally produce products that can help diversify energy in both Wyoming and Campbell County,” Daly said.
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