A White House push to help Wyoming town go nuclear is cautiously embraced

A White House push to help Wyoming town go nuclear is cautiously embraced

Transcript¹

One struggling Wyoming coal town is betting its future on nuclear power with the help of an unlikely partner, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

What happens to places that are still tied to the old fossil fuel economy? That's a question for Wyoming. It's the nation's biggest coal producer, but its coal power plants are shutting down. So now the Biden administration has a plan to help Wyoming go nuclear. NPR's Kirk Siegler takes a look.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE²: In its heyday³, Kemmerer, Wyo., had two dozen coal mines, drawing thousands to this frontier prairie town in search of good-paying jobs. Savvy⁴ entrepreneurs also came for the boom. The most famous is memorialized today in Kemmerer's sleepy town square - a huge statue of James Cash Penney. Kemmerer is home of the original JCPenney's (ph) department store. It's still in business, but it was sold off recently during a bankruptcy⁵, and its future here is in limbo⁶, which is emblematic⁷ more broadly of Kemmerer, a town built by coal.

TERI PICERNO: It's always been the favorite, the baby. Coal was never going to go away, so nobody was really looking at what if.

SIEGLER: Over at the Fossil Country Museum, Teri Picerno is Kemmerer's de facto historian and booster. She also owns the main bar in town, Grumpies. It's a favorite for folks who work at the only remaining coal mine, which dominates the horizon west of town. It filed for bankruptcy in 2018. Soon after, word came that the power plant it feeds will be decommissioned in 2025.

PICERNO: Once the power plant closes, if the local coal mine can't secure more contracts, they'll have to close as well. You know, that would be a loss of another 300 jobs and their families. And I think that's - that bothers a lot of people. I mean, it's kind of scary, you know, to think that you've been working somewhere for 20 years and it could all go away next year.

SIEGLER: But what if those jobs from the old fossil fuel economy didn't have to go away? Well, that's the promise behind an announcement that came a few weeks ago that's bringing some hope to Kemmerer - a planned nuclear power plant.

CHRIS LEVESQUE: This story of retiring coal plants is common, and they need something to replace it.

SIEGLER: Chris Levesque is driving his rental⁸ car past the Naughton coal plant. He turns left, though, into a mostly empty field where the company he runs, TerraPower, has big plans - a $4 billion Natrium reactor⁹ and advanced nuclear energy plant. It's billed as an emissions-free baseline power source that can easily be switched on when solar or wind is intermittent¹⁰.

LEVESQUE: You know, the significance of where we are is we're going to be able to use the team from the Naughton plant, which is over 200 operators who are skilled power plant operators. We're going to be able to use the electrical connection to the grid¹¹.

SIEGLER: And the coal plant's water-cooling source. TerraPower has big backers. It's a Seattle-area nuclear energy company founded by Bill Gates, who's partnering with Wyoming's largest utility and the U.S. government on this project. There's also about $2 billion from the new infrastructure¹² law.

LEVESQUE: I'm very excited about our technology and what it can do for the world, but also really excited that, you know, we're helping¹³ a community here turn a corner.

SIEGLER: If TerraPower's plan works and can be replicated¹⁴ elsewhere, it'd be huge for a rural energy state like Wyoming. Ninety percent of the power produced here comes from fossil fuels. But the utility Rocky Mountain Power announced it will retire all of its 11 coal plants in the state by 2039.

LEVESQUE: We're also really happy to be here in a state that's thinking pretty progressively about the clean energy transition. And we're excited to be working in Wyoming and helping them find opportunity in this transition.

SIEGLER: Progressive isn't a word usually embraced by Wyoming politicians. In fact, the governor here recently signed a law that aimed to prevent utilities from closing coal plants. Wyoming also tried to sue when a permit for an export terminal on the West Coast was denied. And its entire congressional delegation¹⁵ voted against the infrastructure bill that will soon support Kemmerer.

KATHY KARPAN: The coal industry is disappearing. That is a painful truth that Wyoming people are perhaps reluctant to accept.

SIEGLER: Kathy Karpan herself struggles with it. She's a former Wyoming secretary of state, now retired¹⁶. Karpan grew up in a coal mining family and says coal's in her blood. Like so many here, taxes from it helped pay for her education, and the family's wages put her through college. But that legacy¹⁷ is going away, she says, as demand for coal plummets¹⁸.

KARPAN: We have had not only high-paying jobs here, but because we export energy to the rest of the country, we have other people paying our taxes, so we are really going to get a double whammy.

SIEGLER: Few Wyoming towns are more dependent on coal than Kemmerer, so a still speculative¹⁹ bet on nuclear being the savior is being met with some guarded optimism. TerraPower chose Kemmerer's plant for its first Natrium reactor over three other Wyoming coal plants also scheduled to close.

(APPLAUSE)

SIEGLER: At a recent meeting at the Best Western, company executives got a mostly warm reception from business and community leaders, though there are still a lot of uncertainties²⁰ from what will happen to the nuclear waste to what exactly it's going to take to train coal plant workers to run a nuclear reactor.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So construction, again, starting in earnest in 2024.

SIEGLER: In the crowd on that blustery afternoon was Jerry Hansen, a local county commissioner²¹ who later told me that a lot is riding on the nuclear plan. It was a shock when it was finally official that the Naughton coal plant would close.

JERRY HANSEN: This is - we're talking people here. This is jobs. It's families. It's community. It's schools.

SIEGLER: This is one of the most conservative corners of the country. Donald Trump²² got 82% of the vote in Lincoln County. Hansen says Wyoming prides itself on being self-reliant, but he says the Biden administration owes something to coal-dependent states if there's going to be a transition to cleaner-burning fuels. And in Kemmerer, there's still a lot of anxiety over what's going to happen with the new power plant, the coal mine, the JCPenney's (ph). Teri Picerno, the bar owner, says it's hard to get straight answers from corporations and politicians.

PICERNO: You know, you hear people saying we're going to transition away from coal and move to nuclear, wind and solar. At the same time, you have governor working his butt²³ off to find other uses for coal and make sure coal isn't taken out of the economy altogether.

SIEGLER: An irony²⁴ playing out is that it was also environmental laws that once led to a boom here. When the Clean Air Act was passed, power plants began favoring Wyoming's low-sulfur coal over Appalachian coal. As the former Secretary of State Kathy Karpan put it, now the environment and climate change will probably bury the same Wyoming industry.

Kirk Siegler, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF CANYONS OF STATIC'S "THE DISAPPEARANCE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 heyday   

n.全盛时期，青春期

参考例句：

• The 19th century was the heyday of steam railways.19世纪是蒸汽机车鼎盛的时代。
• She was a great singer in her heyday.她在自己的黄金时代是个了不起的歌唱家。

4 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

6 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

7 emblematic   

adj.象征的，可当标志的；象征性

参考例句：

• The violence is emblematic of what is happening in our inner cities. 这种暴力行为正标示了我们市中心贫民区的状况。
• Whiteness is emblematic of purity. 白色是纯洁的象征。 来自辞典例句

8 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

9 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

10 intermittent   

adj.间歇的，断断续续的

参考例句：

• Did you hear the intermittent sound outside?你听见外面时断时续的声音了吗？
• In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth.白天里，时断时续地下着雨，使整个大地都生气勃勃了。

11 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

12 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。

15 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

16 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

17 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

18 plummets   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As a result, blood sugar plummets, sometimes even going below the baseline. 结果，血糖浓度迅速掉落，有时甚至落于基线之下。 来自互联网
• State and local governments could continue to back as tax revenue plummets. 由于税收的直线下降，州和地方政府可能继续削减支出。 来自互联网

19 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

20 uncertainties   

无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物

参考例句：

• One of the uncertainties of military duty is that you never know when you might suddenly get posted away. 任军职不稳定的因素之一是你永远不知道什么时候会突然被派往它处。
• Uncertainties affecting peace and development are on the rise. 影响和平与发展的不确定因素在增加。 来自汉英非文学 - 十六大报告

21 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

22 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

23 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

24 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。