Unified voice allowed Paducah to stand out in race for nuclear growth

A unified voice allowed Paducah to stand out in the race for development dollars in the nuclear sector.

Major economic investments in the Paducah area can be traced back to the community’s acceptance of the nuclear culture. The announcement two weeks ago that General Matter would spend $1.5 billion to build the nation’s first commercial uranium enrichment facility was just the latest step in realizing that vision. Even though parts of the deal came together quickly, the overall process took about 14 months.

Bruce Wilcox of Greater Paducah Economic Development said, “When you look at us as a community, we have a unified voice... from the Chamber, the city, the county, Greater Paducah Economic Development, the Paducah-McCracken County Industrial Development Authority, PACRO... We are all unified in our vision for the community. We are nuclear-friendly. Our community has adopted a nuclear-friendly resolution. When you look at competing communities across the country, that’s something that really makes us stand out, and people realize that.”

That is backed up by Scott Nolan, the CEO of General Matter, who indicated that it may have taken them some time, but Paducah was an obvious choice. Nolan told West Kentucky Star, “Paducah stood out as the best place just because of the community, the community’s experience, its understanding of nuclear, its understanding of enrichment, the expertise that’s here, the infrastructure that’s here. So, yeah, very obvious in hindsight, but it took us some time to figure that out.”

They did figure that out, as did Global Laser Enrichment, another company coming to Paducah looking to use a different technique to enrich uranium. Support for that process is backed up by an allocation during the last session of the General Assembly. Legislators directed $2 million to the Paducah campus of the UK College of Engineering to support the development of a workforce that might be needed by a company like GLE.

Training a workforce for new industries while also continuing with the cleanup at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant highlights more of the common vision that is bringing investment into the area. Combined with the history that made Paducah the Atomic City, these new community partners could be just the beginning.



(Pictured: artist's conception of future General Matters Paducah plant)