# Is West Virginia Now a Serious Contender for DOE's Nuclear Waste Campus Program?

West Virginia is the sixth — and by far the most unexpected — state to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Energy for the Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses (NLIC) program, Gov. Patrick Morrissey announced on September 8. The state was not among the original five finalists when DOE signed its first round of MOUs at the end of July; Morrissey's team lobbied their way in afterward. That late-entry maneuver matters because, per DOE acting deputy assistant secretary Marla Morales, the agency is already planning to downselect further from its existing finalist pool — meaning West Virginia entered the competition at the moment the field was about to shrink, not grow.

The six finalists now standing are Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. All six have signed MOUs that, as DOE has been explicit in stating, represent no firm commitments from either party. The NLIC program targets the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle — used fuel storage, reprocessing, conversion, and ultimately waste disposition, whether via a mined repository or borehole technology.

For utility executives and advanced reactor developers scouting future fuel-cycle infrastructure, this state-level jockeying is the earliest visible signal of where permanent back-end facilities might eventually land.

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## How West Virginia Got Into the Race

The timeline here is instructive. DOE launched the NLIC program in January and issued a request for information inviting states to express interest. By April, 26 states had submitted RFI responses. At the end of July, five states — Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah — received MOUs, while West Virginia was not among them.

Rather than accepting that outcome, Morrissey and his team began what he described at the September 8 press conference as "working the phones" and intensifying engagement with DOE. That effort succeeded in securing a sixth MOU, making West Virginia the only state to join the finalist pool after the initial cut.

West Virginia's RFI response has not been made publicly available at the time of this writing, so the specific technical proposals or site candidates the state put forward are unknown. Morrissey offered no technical specifics, potential site locations, or planned NLIC-related projects at the press conference. The governor did, however, explicitly reference the state legislature's 2022 decision to lift West Virginia's longstanding nuclear moratorium as foundational context — positioning that legislative action as enabling the NLIC candidacy.

His closing call was direct: "I have a message for the nuclear industry: Come to West Virginia." He specifically solicited outreach from advanced reactor companies, component manufacturers, and fuel developers, citing the state's energy resources, skilled workforce, and what he characterized as an administration committed to cutting regulatory red tape at the state level.

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## What NLIC Is Actually Asking States to Do

The program's framing is worth understanding precisely, because it shapes what a finalist MOU actually implies. Speaking at the 2026 Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo (a joint conference of ANS and the Nuclear Energy Institute), Morales described NLIC as an attempt to reframe used nuclear fuel from liability to asset — while being unambiguous that waste disposition is non-negotiable for any participating state.

Her formulation was pointed: fuel fabrication, reprocessing, conversion, and deconversion are "appetizers," but "your main course and your dessert is always going to be the waste disposal" — via a mined repository or boreholes. States can pursue the front-end and mid-cycle activities, but DOE is not offering NLIC partnerships to states unwilling to engage seriously with the disposition question.

Morales also framed the core challenge as social license rather than technical or engineering uncertainty. "Right now we're not solving a technical, scientific, or engineering problem. It's a social license problem." That framing has significant implications for how finalists will be evaluated as DOE moves toward downselection: community acceptance and political durability matter as much as geological suitability or existing infrastructure.

For West Virginia, that creates both an opportunity and a risk. The state's 2022 nuclear moratorium repeal signals legislative buy-in. But Morrissey's RFI response is not public, and without visibility into what specific back-end commitments the state is prepared to make — particularly on waste disposition — it is difficult to assess how seriously DOE will weight this late entry against the five states that have been in the program since July.

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## What the Downselection Means for the Field

The competitive dynamic here is the most important structural detail for industry observers. Morales indicated in an August ANS webinar that DOE would likely downselect further from the five finalists identified at the end of July. West Virginia's addition as a sixth finalist does not change that trajectory — DOE has still not committed to a final number of state partnerships.

That means the field is currently six states competing for an unspecified but apparently smaller number of eventual NLIC host designations. West Virginia's late entry, without a public RFI response and without specific technical commitments on the record, puts it in a structurally weaker position for downselection than states whose proposals have been publicly documented and presumably evaluated for longer.

For advanced reactor developers and fuel-cycle companies assessing where to direct site development resources, the five original finalists — particularly those with existing nuclear infrastructure, DOE-adjacent facilities, or documented geological suitability for repository development — remain better-grounded bets until DOE's downselection clarifies the picture. West Virginia's inclusion is a political data point more than a technical one at this stage.

ANS's Nuclear News has published a two-part series examining the RFI responses from the original five finalists, providing more substantive technical detail on what those states are actually proposing. West Virginia's equivalent document remains unavailable.

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## Key Takeaways

- West Virginia is the sixth NLIC finalist, added after the original five-state MOU round at the end of July, following direct lobbying by Gov. Morrissey's team.
- The other five finalists are Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah; all six hold MOUs that carry no firm commitments from either party.
- DOE's Marla Morales has signaled a further downselection from the finalist pool; West Virginia entered the competition after that signal was already public.
- NLIC's core requirement is back-end engagement: states can pursue fuel fabrication and reprocessing activities, but waste disposition — mined repository or boreholes — is mandatory for full participation.
- DOE frames the primary obstacle as social license, not engineering; community acceptance is a formal evaluation criterion.
- West Virginia's RFI response has not been made public, limiting outside assessment of the state's technical and siting proposals.
- The state's 2022 nuclear moratorium repeal is the key enabling legislative action cited by Morrissey.

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is the DOE's NLIC program?**
The Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses program, launched by DOE in January, invites states to partner with the federal government on facilities supporting the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Activities can include used fuel storage, reprocessing, fuel fabrication, conversion, and waste disposition. DOE has signed memorandums of understanding with six state finalists — Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia — though none of those MOUs represent firm commitments.

**How many NLIC host states will DOE ultimately select?**
DOE has not committed to a final number. Acting deputy assistant secretary Marla Morales indicated in an August webinar with the American Nuclear Society that the agency would likely downselect further from its current pool of finalists. The final number of state partnerships remains unannounced.

**Why did West Virginia join the NLIC finalist list later than the other states?**
West Virginia was not selected in the initial round of MOUs signed at the end of July. Gov. Morrissey stated that his team began intensive outreach to DOE after that initial cut, which resulted in a sixth MOU being signed. The state's RFI response has not been made public.

**Does an NLIC MOU mean a state will host a nuclear waste facility?**
No. DOE and state officials have both been explicit that the MOUs represent no firm commitments from either party. The MOU is a framework for continued engagement and planning, not a siting decision.

**What does DOE require of NLIC finalist states on waste disposal?**
According to Morales, waste disposition is the non-negotiable component of NLIC participation. States can select among various front-end and mid-cycle activities — fuel fabrication, reprocessing, conversion, deconversion — but a credible path to either a mined repository or borehole disposal is described as the mandatory "main course" of any NLIC partnership.