Count Brigham City in.
The small northern Utah community’s leaders voted unanimously Thursday to embark on an ambitious plan to turn their town into the nation’s next hub for nuclear energy research and workforce training.
“We are thrilled to see this project developed in Brigham City,” said city spokesperson Cami Sabin in an email a few days before the vote. “The pathway for training, education, and careers in a good-paying industry will allow more of our local residents to stay here in the community they love.”
The City Council’s vote finalizes a pact with Utah State University and Beehive State-based nuclear company Hi Tech Solutions to develop a training and research campus on university-owned land next to the school’s Brigham City outpost.
“We’re obviously extremely excited about this proposition,” said Brigham City administrator Derek Oyler before Thursday’s vote. “The ground around Utah State University has been sitting vacant for many years, and it’s a prime opportunity.”
While there’s hardly anything legally binding in the accord — it’s more of a formal pinky promise to work together — it marks an early step in bringing a nuclear energy industrial revolution to Utah.
Last year, Gov. Spencer Cox announced plans to roll out a full ecosystem for the industry in Brigham City — one meant to train a workforce, offer certifications, facilitate research, and eventually manufacture components for a technology called small modular reactors.
Such reactors are a popular idea for electrical generation, though there are no commercial reactors operating in the United States.
Under the new pact, USU agrees to develop a curriculum, Brigham City says it will support the building plans and “regional economic development initiatives,” and Hi Tech Solutions says it will be the master developer and provide industry insight and expertise.
The university intends to offer its land through a long-term ground lease, though the cost and other details of that arrangement were not included in Thursday night’s agreement.
USU spokesperson Amanda DeRito said a lease still needs to be negotiated.
Hi Tech Solutions didn’t respond to questions about the lease.
The new agreement also doesn’t spell out financial commitments, but a Hi Tech Solutions news release says the first phase of the campus would begin in 2028, using up to $100 million to build a 20,000-square-foot facility.
Future phases call for developing a manufacturing plant to build parts for the existing nuclear industry, and, eventually, getting into the business of building small modular reactors.
