The Military Installation Development Authority will pursue a $5 million loan from the state’s energy fund to begin getting 400 acres of land near Camp Williams ready for nuclear projects.
Securing the funds would allow MIDA to move forward its partnership with California-based nuclear startup General Matter to develop the land. The two are exploring projects including nuclear energy equipment manufacturing and uranium enrichment.
MIDA is the state agency created to serve veterans and members of the military. It’s governed by a board of appointed, not elected, officials.
In June, Utah’s State Armory Board agreed to lease the land, near the Utah National Guard training center, to MIDA for the next 120 years.
MIDA board members voted Aug. 14 to seek the state funds.
Executive Director Paul Morris said the agency needs the loan because it has “a chicken and an egg problem”: General Matter needs a flat site to determine its plans, and MIDA needs money, but it can’t bond based on hypotheticals.
“I’ve been in contact with Joel Ferry and his office, and the legislature gave them $8 million for energy projects,” he said. “He’s gone to them and talked about giving MIDA – it’s like the infrastructure bank. We’ve got the $5 million loan for us to be able to start on the 50 acres, and then we pay it back.”
MIDA and General Matter plan to start with a 50-acre buildable pad, which Morris said will most likely be used for equipment manufacturing, since there are fewer regulatory hoops to jump through.
“When they decide to go to that site, then we will issue a bond and repay the loan,” he said.
If General Matter withdraws from its agreement with MIDA, Morris said plenty of other companies are interested. But he’s confident in General Matter’s plans. In June, he told MIDA leaders the company is “looking seriously” at investing “well over a billion dollars plus” into nuclear energy in Utah.
“What they’re looking for is a campus up there – so the manufacturing and the enrichment,” he said. “The enrichment has a lot of public process to go through and satisfy everybody that it’s safe and secure.”
Security, Morris said, won’t be a concern for a facility on a military base. If or when General Matter moves toward enrichment, he said the company would answer the public’s questions about its safety measures.
Enrichment is essentially the process of concentrating uranium. It’s a key step to make nuclear fuel. General Matter is one of four companies awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Energy to enrich uranium.
MIDA will next seek a contractor to flatten the Camp Williams land and sell gravel from the site.
“How do you make 400 acres and make it flat and buildable for us, and what’s the value of the gravel that you might be able to pull out to offset the cost of doing that?” Morris said.
He said the deadline for proposals is Oct. 1. Meanwhile, MIDA is finalizing its sublease of the land to General Matter, operating here as Utah Energy.
Utah is leaning into nuclear power development as part of its effort to become more energy independent. Last fall, KUER reported the state launched “Operation Gigawatt” in response to the growing demand to fuel artificial intelligence. The project’s goal is to double Utah’s power generation capacity, including nuclear and geothermal power.
According to the Utah News Dispatch, state lawmakers allocated $10 million in this year’s budget to find sites for Gov. Spencer Cox’s nuclear energy vision.
In May, the Utah Office of Energy Development signed an agreement with another California nuclear company, Valar Atomics, to create an advanced reactor in Emery County by next summer. It’s intended for research.
