Coal-dependent communities in Colorado consider nuclear transition after new state law
Economies in Colorado that have relied on coal for decades are now searching for another energy option as a new Colorado law pushes them away from coal energy production and mining.
Craig, a city of about 10,000 people in the northwest corner of the state, is among those looking for an energy transition. City officials expect to lose around 700 jobs in the next few years, as coal mining and energy plants go offline.
"First of the units closing by the end of 2025," Chris Nichols, mayor of Craig, said. "Units two and three will be closing in '28 and mid-year '28. So it'll be completely offline. One of the two coal mines is closing at the end of this year as well."
"What it really means- these are high-paying jobs for our community," Nichols said. "We have the heritage for the last 50 years or so in coal mining and power production, and a proud heritage of being able to supply power for the country. Now, we're evaluating anything we can, which will have a significant impact on the economy for the community."
Alongside geothermal energy production, Nichols believes nuclear energy could be a solution too, but there's more to learn before the city simply says "yes." It's now a real possibility, thanks to a new Colorado law, which started as the bipartisan-sponsored House Bill 25-1040, that adds nuclear energy to the definition of "clean energy" in Colorado, allowing it to qualify for retail utility to meet the 2050 clean energy target in the state.
Democratic State Sen. Dylan Roberts, a co-sponsor of the bill that's now law and whose district includes Craig, believes nuclear energy is worth exploring if it's the right option for these kinds of communities facing a financial cliff in their future.
"They want to be energy producers, they know that it can't be coal moving forward or it won't be coal because of those decisions that the companies have made, but it could be these modern nuclear generators that are very safe and smaller scale and but still do produce good jobs and produce a lot of energy that can be sent throughout the region," Roberts said.
The small generators he's referencing are called small modular reactors, which have been used in Russia and China at this point. The smaller footprint of the processing of nuclear energy is only part of the sales pitch; the other being a new conversation about the reliability and environmental concerns that nuclear energy has brought into the equation in the past.
"We're not talking about the giant smokestacks that we saw in Three Mile Island or Chernobyl," Roberts said. "These modern nuclear technologies are still being developed and being tested across the country and across the world. But we know that nuclear can be very safe, and it is used in 27 other states in our country. You have nuclear as part of their energy portfolio, and other countries like France get over 70% of their electricity from nuclear."
Diversifying where Colorado gets its energy is a part of the process, Roberts explained, while trying to hold to the state's climate action goals.
"We are not going to get to 100% carbon-free electricity with just solar and wind," Roberts said. "So we need to add something else to the mix or a few other things to the mix, and these produce really high-paying jobs. It is proven to be safe, and it can give us the electricity that we need. So that is the point, not to force this on anybody, but to let's let's have that conversation.'
Nichols said it's not something the city is sold on right now, but absolutely something it wants to look into, considering the job growth, high-paying wages, and energy production that already runs in the natural fabric of the culture in Craig, with a new nuclear approach: "The new nuclear cycle is what we're looking at actually, everything from enrichment to generation, using the fuel to storing, to possibility recycling that fuel, re-enrichment. So it's a full cycle which does not exist today."
