The City of Paducah and McCracken County governments hosted a pair of community education meetings on nuclear energy this week.
The two meetings – held at the Paducah-McCracken County Convention & Expo Center Thursday evening and Friday morning – aimed to provide area residents with a base-level knowledge of the science behind nuclear energy and the current state of the industry. Concerned citizens also had the chance to offer public comment.
Thursday’s meeting drew a crowd of around 150. Nearly 50 attendees turned out on Friday morning.
The informational session was led by Kara Colton, the director of nuclear energy programs for the Energy Communities Alliance – a nonprofit organization that brings together communities impacted by U.S. Department of Energy activities.
“When we talk about nuclear energy today, we're not just talking about electrons on the grid – we're talking about economic development, workforce opportunity, and long-term community stability,” Colton said Thursday. “Nuclear is a 60-year economic anchor, at a minimum. It brings high-skill, high-wage jobs, a stable tax base and a supply chain that supports small businesses, contractors and local institutions. But none of it matters if we don't communicate that well.”
Colton’s presentation topics were geared to help the local city and county governments meet the requirements to gain Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority’s Nuclear-Ready Community designation.
Beyond holding two educational meetings, localities must also demonstrate the presence of suitable development sites and show community support either in the form of resolutions from the county and all its cities or through the approval of a countywide ballot initiative.
Both the McCracken County Fiscal Court and the Paducah City Commission have already passed resolutions to that effect. Though, notably, both resolutions – adopted with little fanfare in January 2024 – predate the creation of KNEDA by Kentucky’s state legislature in the spring of that year. Both of those resolutions also came before the public announcements of the Global Laser Enrichment and General Matter projects, two private uranium enrichment facilities already in development in the western Kentucky county.
Some attendees expressed support for the pair of projects already in the works, citing their potential to drive economic growth, while others voiced environmental and safety concerns.
Tonya Sullenger grew up in West Paducah, “in the shadow” of the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. She said she attributes her father’s chronic illness to living near the facility that had a track record of significant health impacts among its former workers and many in the surrounding communities.
“The financial gain is not worth the health of the McCracken County residents,” she said. “We have already paid a price once, and we're not willing to pay another one.”
The federal government paid over $500 million in 2009 to thousands of current and former PGDP workers – and in some cases their survivors – to compensate them for illnesses the employees developed as a result of working with or around hazardous materials on-site.
Rev. Charles Uhlik, of Paducah’s Grace Episcopal Church, urged environmental stewardship during his remarks, drawing lines from the Kentuckian Trappist monk Thomas Merton, Bluegrass State author and environmentalist Wendell Berry and the Bible.
“From the beginning of Genesis, humanity has given the vocation to till and to keep the garden, to use, yes, but also to protect it. That calling is not changed. It echoes every decision we make about our land, water, and our systems that sustain our lives,” Uhlik said. “The care of the earth is our own most ancient and most worthy responsibility.”
Several people who made comment echoed a request made during other public forums centered on the western Kentucky nuclear developments – asking for a combined, independent environmental impact study that looks at both the General Matter development on the DOE site and Global Laser Enrichment project across the fenceline, on the land the company purchased in a landswap deal in 2024.
“No single agency is currently required to assess the combined environmental impact of all proposed projects,” Ruth Baggett said Thursday. “That is a regulatory gap that puts this community at risk. Before any permits are issued, before any designation is granted and before any more public money is committed, we are calling for an independent cumulative environmental impact study.”
Baggett, among others, also criticized the decision to have Colton lead the community education meetings’ informational session, which local leadership had previously announced would be led by nuclear scientist Patrick White. White could not attend due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to press releases from the city and county. Colton has worked in the nuclear industry for two decades as a policy expert and strategic consultant.
“The substitution of a scientist with an industry advocate is not a scheduling change. It is a substantive failure to meet the state's own standards for what these meetings are supposed to deliver,” Baggett said. “McCracken County deserves answers, not a sales pitch.”
Erica Moore started the community group Protect McCracken County last month to circulate a petition demanding transparency from local government on these nuclear projects. She also weighed in during the public comment section on both Thursday and Friday. Moore said an independent study could provide valuable insight for area residents who she feels have been left out of the loop when it comes to the deals local leaders have struck with the companies.
“Commission this … study, one that residents can actually see. Because a community that can't read the terms of its own financial commitment is not a partner in this economic development, it's a blank check,” she said Thursday. “McCracken County deserves real return on its investment, and that starts with transparency.”
In late March, Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced that GLE would receive $98.9 million in state and county incentives through a combination of tax and other economic benefits – should GLE reach its agreed investment and job creation thresholds. Approximately $27 million will come from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority and the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act (KEIA), also approved by KEDFA. The remaining $71.9 million is still unaccounted for.
McCracken County Judge-Executive Craig Clymer told WKMS at the time that he was unable to confirm how much the local government was contributing or the funding mechanism they hoped to use, saying he was under a nondisclosure agreement.
He promised Thursday that transparency would come.
“Some of this material just has to be kept from public disclosure up until the time that the need for the nondisclosure [agreement] is eliminated, and that time will come and it'll come very soon,” Clymer told the crowd. “Y'all that don't know me don't know how cheap I am. But don't think that we didn't make a good deal on this … you're going to be quite well pleased with the deal that comes out of this.”
Gary Wilson, who’s worked at the Paducah Department of Energy site for nearly four decades, spoke in support of the General Matter and GLE projects.
“The advanced technologies of these companies will allow safe, efficient ways to produce the energy necessary to support the United States no longer being reliant on foreign countries, also providing many jobs and opportunity for economic growth in our region,” he said.
Greater Paducah Economic Development president and CEO Bruce Wilcox said Thursday that the pair of developments are expected to invest a combined $3.3 billion in the western Kentucky county. He said the projects are also expected to create nearly 400 direct jobs paying more than six figures annually along with nearly 500 “indirect and induced” jobs, with a projected yearly economic impact of more than $184 million.
Tracy Shelby, who previously worked as a contractor on the DOE site, said she also trusts that modern engineering and safety standards will be employed at the new nuclear developments in Paducah. She believes the industry will bring economic prosperity to the region.
“I was so confident in my safety that I actually worked on that job site pregnant. I walked in the dirt, I walked in the creek pregnant. [I] delivered a healthy child. That child now just graduated from high school … she wants to be an orthodontist,” she said Friday. “My hope is that she will come back to Paducah and open her practice. The only way that she will do that … is if Paducah is a viable, vibrant community. The way to do that is to bring businesses in. GLE and General Matter are going to do that for us.”
After each meeting’s public comment portion, Kentucky state Sen. Danny Carroll, of Paducah, spoke to the crowd. Carroll has been a key player in the reopening of the Bluegrass State to the nuclear industry, helping lift the decadeslong moratorium on developments with the passage of the Leeper Act – named for former state Sen. Bob Leeper of Paducah – in 2017 and helping launch KNEDA in 2024.
Carroll said Friday that he expects Kentucky to build its first nuclear reactor within the next 10 to 15 years. He also said that he wants western Kentucky to continue to be a leader in the field and build upon its history as Kentucky’s “Atomic City.”
“What we're going through right now, as far as nuclear energy, this is not a Paducah thing,” Carroll said. “It's not a Kentucky state thing. It's not a United States thing. This is a worldwide revolution in nuclear energy … that site is our primary asset in this region. Our community will not prosper. We will not move forward if we don't take advantage of those opportunities that that site has given us. For us to not embrace that would be foolish at this point.”
