Webinar at 4 PM Central today - on nuclear projects proposed for Texas and health risks

[Michael J Keegan]

Dear No Nuke Community,

 

From: KarenD Hadden <karend...@gmail.com>

Date: 03/10/2026 5:39 AM EDT

Subject: Webinar at 4 PM Central, today - on nuclear projects proposed for Texas and health risks

 

 

Hi Everyone, Don’t miss the presentation this afternoon at 4 PM (Central)… it will be great!  Tim Judson and Diane D’Arrigo of NIRS will speak. Thanks to Susybelle Gosslee and Tonya Kleuskens and the League of Women Voters of Dallas for hosting this presentation. Here’s all the information and the link. Attached is written information about the nuclear reactors proposed for Texas.  

 

 

League of Women Voters of Dallas

 

IS NUCLEAR ENERGY RIGHT for TEXAS?

A DISCUSSION OF TEXAS’ HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

 

Will more nuclear energy come to Texas?  Why?  How much nuclear technology is coming to Texas, and what types of technology are being considered? What will it cost? How does nuclear energy affect Texans’ air, water, health, and safety? Could nuclear energy contaminate Texas? When will Texas get more nuclear energy? What other energy sources are being considered, and what do they cost Texans?

 

Find out the answer to all these questions and more at this informative webinar.

 

SPEAKERS:      Tim Judson – Executive Director, Nuclear Information & Resource Center 

                        “Beware of Small Modular Reactors – Projects Proposed Nationally and In Texas

 

Diane D’Arrigo – Radioactive Waste Project Director, Nuclear Information & Resource Center

                         “Health Risks and the Attempt to Weaken Radiation Exposure Standards”

 

 

ZOOM MEETING:            Tuesday, March 10, 2026

TIME:                                 4 p.m. Central Time (5 p.m. Eastern Time)

LINK TO MEETING:      https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/603g3MhUQFqRZ3tMe3hfCQ

 

 

Texas’ Proposed Nuclear Projects (logo not attached)

 

Today’s energy decisions will have long-term impacts for our future. The right

climate solutions are needed now to protect human life and our environment.

Nuclear power is not a climate or energy solution. It’s too expensive, takes

too long to build, and it creates dangerous radioactive waste for which there

is no solution.

Many proposed small modular nuclear reactor designs have not yet

been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some are

rebranded designs that failed and were halted by the Atomic Energy

Commission decades ago.

The nuclear industry claims that somehow nuclear power is now safe and

that past problems have been solved. This is simply not true. We should not

allow ourselves to be fooled by the nuclear industry. Nuclear power remains

dangerous and expensive, with the potential for catastrophic accidents and

contamination, and proposed new designs would create proportionately more

waste than today’s large nuclear reactors.

Radioactive waste from existing and from proposed “small modular reactors”

can cause various cancers. Unshielded exposure is lethal. Invisible

radioactive materials are routinely release by operating nuclear reactors,

silently poisoning our air and water. Aging reactors should be shut down, and

not be re-licensed or re-opened after closure.

Nuclear is the most expensive way to generate electricity. Delays and cost

overruns are the norm for the industry. The Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia,

was expected to cost $17 billion, but soared to $35 billion, and customers’

electric bills skyrocketed.

 

In 2007, a so-called national “Nuclear Renaissance” led off by targeting

Texas as ground-zero for the first U.S. nuclear reactors proposed in decades,

but citizen opposition, low natural gas prices and nuclear cost overruns

combined to halt them before construction ever began. Comanche Peak 3 &

 

4 nuclear reactors were halted in 2013 and South Texas Project 3 & 4 were

halted in 2018. Texas is again being targeted for a new national nuclear push.

State funding is being wasted on previously failed, pie-in-the-sky nuclear

technologies. This funding should go to affordable wind and solar projects

that can be phased in as needed and can go from construction to operating

in as little as 18 months.

 

Texas passed legislation in 2025 creating a state agency, the Texas

Advanced Nuclear Energy Office (TANEO) to promote nuclear development,

primarily focused on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). So far, $425 million

in public financing for nuclear projects has been allocated, and up to $2

billion may become available.Some proposed projects aim to power AI data

centers. The HALEU fuel to be used in some reactor designs is close to bomb

grade concentration, creating security risks.

Projects Proposed in Texas



Dow & X-energy (Seadrift)

: Developing an advanced SMR for power

and steam at a manufacturing site on the Gulf Coast. They want to

build four 80 MW pebble-bed design reactors, all for private use, and

not for the grid. Each unit would circulate 220,000 fuel balls, each of

which must be perfect, requiring an unprecedented level of perfection

to prevent a nuclear accident. This failed technology was halted by the

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and no major design improvement

since then is evident. The U.S. Department of Energy is a 50% funder

of this commercial project, one of two national pilot projects.



Fermi America & Texas Tech (Lubbock): This massive energy

complex seeks to use nuclear, gas, solar, and energy storage to power

AI data centers near Amarillo, Texas.

Former Texas Governor and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is a co-founder of Fermi America.

Their application to build the largest gas plant complex in the nation has

been approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

(TCEQ), but a legal appeal is anticipated. The company also seeks to

build four AP-1000 nuclear reactors at this water-scarce desert

location, adjacent to the Pantex nuclear bomb facility. This design is

the same as that of the $35 billion Vogtle reactors in Georgia. Add to

 

the expenses that air-cooling is proposed, which has never been done

for nuclear reactors. Cost overruns and radioactive contamination

could result. Small modular nuclear reactors are planned as well. The

energy complex would support a data center for Palantir, known for

domestic surveillance work. The Panhandle Taxpayers for

Transparency group is challenging the air permits for this project.



Natura Resources (Abilene): Building demonstration molten salt

reactors, with plans for commercial units by 2030, at the Abilene

Christian University campus. We’re told these reactors cannot meltf

down because the hot liquid fuel can drain out the bottom if there is a

problem, but this can go wrong if an internal piece breaks and jams a

drain. Radiation releases are possible.



Texas A&M RELLIS Campus (Bryan) : Four companies could

potentially build at least one commercial reactor on the Texas A&M

Rellis research campus, which intends to be an energy proving ground.

The university has requested $200 million from the State’s General

Fund for neede infrastructure upgrades. Kairos seeks to build two

reactors with a combined 150 MW of power. Natura seeks to build a

100 MW plant at the site by 2030. Aalo wants to test its product

comprised of five 10 MW reactors, designed to power AI data centers.

Terrestrial Energy wants to build two reactors, totaling 400 MW of

capacity, which it hopes to have operational in 10 years.



Last Energy (Northwest Texas): This company is planning to build

30 microreactors (20 MW each) by 2029, for data centers at its 200

acre site in Haskell County, about an hour’s drive north of Abilene.

The company has filed for a grid connection with ERCOT, and is preparing

to submit an early site permit application to the

NRC. Last Energy’s PWR-20 design is a traditional pressurized water reactor that would be

air cooled and use low-enriched uranium fuel (less than 5% uranium).

Provided as a courtesy of Texas Nuclear Watchdogs using

data from online searches and websites.

 

Nuclear energy and its impacts need to be known. Become an informed voter and make democracy work. You are also invited to become a member of the League of Women Voters to learn about this issue and others.

 

We’re excited for you to join us! Here’s a related factsheet from Texas Nuclear Watchdogs.