The Trump administration reportedly wants to create new nuclear waste hosting sites in the country, and Louisiana could be among them. These reports enraged some Louisiana residents, who argued that the state was “selling out” to big corporations once again.
According to reports from The Daily Mirror, U.S. President Donald Trump intends to quadruple the country’s nuclear power capacity by 2050, which would include abandoning Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the nation’s sole nuclear waste repository.
The federal government received 28 applications from 26 states, and only five were shortlisted: “Tennessee, Utah, Louisiana, Idaho, and Oklahoma.” If selected, these states would host nuclear waste facilities, uranium enrichment, spent-fuel recycling, and fuel production.
Louisiana Residents React to Trump’s Plans
Louisiana residents on r/Louisiana discussed the plans, calling the facilities “nuclear dumping grounds.” One of them complained: “Of course, Louisiana makes the list. Between Johnson, Landry, Scalise, and Kennedy, the entirety of the state will be sold to corporations by 2030.”
Someone else argued that “They do this [expletive] because they know Louisianians are too stupid to vote against them. Absolutely fascinating stuff to witness.”
Another local tried to explain why there was so little opposition to the plans: “That’s what happens when you (1) purposely defund education over a long period of time to create a more easily manipulated populace, (2) gerrymander the state to hell and back, and (3) put as much of the voting age population as possible into prison on felony charges so they lose the right to vote.”
A seemingly angry user said: “I volunteer that they put it underneath the Capitol and governor’s mansion.”
However, not everyone was equally skeptical that this was a good idea. One person wrote: “Nuclear power is a lot safer than people are led to believe. They produce very few barrels of waste, and the barrels themselves are mostly thick radiation shielding, so they’re safe to transport. The final dumping spot is burying the barrels deep in a mountain where you can’t access them without massive digging equipment and months of time.”
In any case, most residents seemed to believe that the proposal would make life in the state worse. One person summarized the overall sentiment shared by many in the thread: “Good thing that I just left Louisiana for good.”
