Utah’s nuclear plan near Great Salt Lake
To make matters worse, last week Governor Cox announced nuclear development plans just miles from Great Salt Lake. Last year, his administration spent $2 million on a public relations campaign to get Utahns on board with nuclear development.
Utah just had to use $30 million of taxpayer money to buy ourselves out of the industrial mess left by US Magnesium. Now, the state is proposing to bring an entirely new category of high-risk industrial activity into the same watershed that drains into Great Salt Lake wetlands. As the lake continues to shrink, exposing toxic dust that already threatens the health of communities along the Wasatch Front, placing nuclear infrastructure nearby raises serious concerns about contamination risks that could be carried through air, soil, and water.
At a time when the priority should be restoring the lake and reducing pollution, this proposal moves in the opposite direction, doubling down on industrial development in one of Utah’s most fragile and consequential ecosystems.
The Salt Lake Tribune article covered opposition to the plans in Millard County, which was one of seven Utah counties to be included in the original 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, due to the severity of nuclear fallout health impacts there. The program has since expanded to cover all of Utah.