UW Researchers to Study Repowering State’s Retiring Coal Plants with Nuclear Energy

[Marlin]

UW Researchers to Study Repowering State's Retiring Coal Plants with Nuclear Energy

https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/11/uw-researchers-to-study-repowering-states-retiring-coal-plants-with-nuclear-energy.html

[Core Content]

Federal funding will support a new University of Wyoming study on replacing retiring fossil fuel plants with small modular nuclear reactors. The project evaluates technical feasibility, economic viability, and workforce impacts. Researchers intend to identify suitable regional sites and gauge community support.

Transitioning coal sites to nuclear generation allows developers to reuse existing grid connections, cooling systems, and infrastructure. This approach can lower capital costs, reduce construction timelines, and preserve local tax revenue and jobs. The findings may help address rising electricity demands from data centers while maintaining regional grid reliability.

University of Wyoming researchers have secured federal funding to analyze the possibility of turning retiring coal-fired power plant sites in Wyoming into small modular nuclear facilities, similar to what's happening with TerraPower's Natrium power plant under construction near Kemmerer.

Professor Haibo Zhai, UW's Roy and Caryl Cline Distinguished Chair in Engineering, will evaluate the technical feasibility, economic viability, workforce implications and community considerations associated with converting retiring coal-fired power plant sites into power-generating nuclear reactors in the state. The two-year study has a total budget of $645,000, with $513,000 of that funded by a U.S. Economic Development Administration program aimed at helping coal communities.

Read the full article at uwyo.edu:
https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2026/11/uw-researchers-to-study-repowering-states-retiring-coal-plants-with-nuclear-energy.html