Fentress County is no longer being considered or evaluated as a potential site for a nuclear waste repository, County Executive Jacob Rosenbaum announced Monday. The reversal comes after months of organized opposition from residents, local lawmakers, and the county commission, which had all pushed back against the proposal.
According to WVLT, the Fentress County Commission voted unanimously against the repository proposal, a move that followed a petition signed by thousands of residents opposing the site. Local state lawmakers also advocated against housing the repository in the county, according to the same report.
Rosenbaum framed the outcome as a direct result of that unified pushback. “Fentress County stood together. We were heard, and now we can move forward together,” he said, per the station's report. He added that he was grateful the county reached this outcome while maintaining a positive and constructive relationship with state government.
State Says Economic Partnerships Will Continue
Rosenbaum said state officials respected the county's opposition to the proposal and affirmed that state support for local economic development and infrastructure initiatives would continue unaffected. The station described the decision as one that halts concern over hosting hazardous nuclear materials in the area while protecting the county's upcoming economic and infrastructure partnerships with the state.
The fight over the repository had been building for months. In September, the Fentress County Board of Commissioners formally rejected the proposal by passing a resolution, according to The UC Now. At the time, Rosenbaum said Pickett County was considering a similar resolution while Morgan County had already issued its own petition in opposition, the outlet reported.
A Regional Push Against the Cumberland Plateau Sites
Fentress County was one of four counties on the Cumberland Plateau that Tennessee's public proposal identified as potential candidate areas for long-term underground nuclear waste storage, alongside Pickett, Morgan and Scott counties, according to a briefing from state Representative Kelly Keisling. Keisling later said he delivered a petition with 4,991 signatures opposing the proposed Nuclear Innovation Campus and potential repository plans to Governor Bill Lee, as reported by Scott County News. He said he also delivered formal resolutions opposing a repository from the Morgan, Fentress, Pickett and Clay County Commissions, as well as the Byrdstown and Jamestown City Councils.
Separate Campus Competition Still in Play
The repository fight is distinct from a separate initiative: Tennessee remains one of five states, alongside Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Idaho, selected to continue negotiations for hosting a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. That proposed campus could attract up to $50 billion in investment and create 25,000 jobs, Knox News has reported. A July report from E&E News noted that, among publicly available state replies at the time, only Tennessee and Utah had expressed interest in hosting a more permanent storage site, as the nation grapples with more than 95,000 metric tons of accumulated spent nuclear fuel.
For now, Fentress County's status is settled. Residents and local leaders who pushed back against the proposed repository site got the answer they were looking for, and Rosenbaum's office says the county's relationship with the state remains intact heading into future economic and infrastructure projects.
