‘We don’t want you here’ — Attendees leave Radiant Nuclear town hall with many questions unanswered
CASPER — Thunderous applause and cries of “we don’t want you here” greeted the Radiant Nuclear representatives partway through a town hall meeting attended by more than 100 people in Bar Nunn on Monday night.
Despite both vocal support and opposition from the audience, Attendees said Radiant’s lack of transparency and inconsistent information led to further confusion on both sides of the aisle. Many in attendance said Radiant appeared to have been evading direct answers to the simplest of questions.
Crowd questions
“Through Advanced Casper, have you submitted an application for $25 million of tax money from hard-working Wyoming tax payers to go to your pocket?” an attendee asked.
“The Joint Powers Board applied for the grant, and they can answer the questions about the grant with the Wyoming Business Council,” Radiant Chief Operating Officer Torie Shivanandan answered.
“You were just talking about the manufacturing of these cores is so specific. Now you said this is going to be your first-ever facility, right? You don’t have another one running, do you?” another attendee asked.
Shivanandan replied that the company has one facility in California but no microreactors.
She told attendees that 10% of the jobs created by the proposed Radiant facility in Bar Nunn are going to be specialist jobs. The company will work with local colleges to create training programs, but until then, specialists will be hired from out of state and brought to Bar Nunn if they can’t be found in-state.
Shivanandan clarified near the beginning of the town hall that the company has not received a permit to manufacture and transport a nuclear microreactor from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or any other entity.
Transparency
Many attendees expressed their frustration after the presentation, emphasizing that company officials were not too open to directly answering questions.
Ranging from concerns over emergency procedures to questions about surveys and testing, just a handful of residents expressed satisfaction with Radiant’s answers.
A town hall attendee asked for the failure rate of TRISO- fuel pellets, the percentage of incidents when the ceramic coating on the uranium pellets breaks.
Shivanandan replied that the target rate for DOD fuel is 0.0001% but the core hasn’t been turned on yet, though seven studies have been conducted.
“That’s fine. What is the failure rate, is what I’m asking,” an attendee said.
Radiant representatives offered to take down the attendees’ contact information and follow up, but the audience was dissatisfied.
The attendee asked how many of the pellets had been broken unintentionally during testing. “Things that we tested and then every system that we’ve built today, we test, we make sure we understand it and then we try and break it,” Shivanandan said.
The attendee clarified that the question was about unintentionally breakage that occurred during the testing process.
“If you’re testing with the intention of finding out what’s wrong, to me, they’re all intended,” Shivanandan.
As the attendee reiterated the question, the microphone was taken and handed to another attendee.
Throughout the evening, audience requests for data and information were left unanswered.
Several attendees asked to see the studies that led Radiant to choose Bar Nunn over numerous other sites across 14 states.
“[The data] for us choosing that specific location that you’d like us to share, I’m not sure that that’d be appropriate to the other states, for that to become public information on why they didn’t get selected, because that’s sensitive,” Shivanandan said.
“Well, it’s a data-driven study, correct? So why wouldn’t you be able to share that data regardless, I mean any data is negative for someone and positive for another,” an attendee said. “That’s how data works. Why wouldn’t you be willing to share because you said it was because you looked at our infrastructure and our high schools are wonderful, which I do not disagree with that statement, but if you’re going to stand up there and say you did studies, you need to be willing to share that with consumers and the people that want to educate themselves, so saying that wouldn’t be fair to another community, why is that fair to us?”
When their questions were not answered to their satisfaction, attendees shouted over speakers.
Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, reminded them to be polite.
Survey questioned
One attendee claimed Radiant representatives had said on two previous occasions that if Bar Nunn did not want it to build its facility there, it would leave.
Shivanandan replied that a Radiant poll showed that 70% of area residents want it there.
Radiant’s poll, conducted by the pollster Cygnal, initially reached out to between 1,200 and 1,300 residents in Natrona County, choosing only 300 to take the full survey.
A Bar Nunn couple who was surveyed said the phrasing of the questions was biased.
The couple said the questions included the following statements:
“Radiant’s design is based on proven technology used safely for decades. The plant will be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and monitored constantly to ensure safety for workers and the community.”
“Radiant’s new facility will create hundreds of good-paying, long term jobs in Natrona County–from welders and electricians to HR and security. These are stable careers that can help young people stay in the area or return home to build their future here.”
“America is falling behind in advanced energy technology compared to countries like China. Radiant is leading the way in restoring America’s competitive edge and global leadership in energy production.”
Survey recipients were asked to rank the statements on a multiple choice scale of “much less likely” to “much more likely,” with an option to select “unsure.”
The order of the multiple choice options was shuffled from question to question.
The last question on the survey asked participants “Now knowing this information… do you support or oppose Radiant opening a nuclear microreactor manufacturing facility in Natrona County?”
None of the survey questions provided to the Star-Tribune addressed nuclear waste storage in Natrona County.
A straw poll was conducted Monday night. Bar Nunn residents present were asked to raise their hands and leave them up if they are against Radiant’s waste storage facility.
More than 50% of Bar Nunn residents present at Monday night’s town hall indicated they are opposed to Radiant locating a waste storage facility near town.
At a town hall forum hosted at The Hanger in late June, Allemand asked for a show of hands from attendees who support storing spent nuclear fuel “in their backyard.”
Sixty people voted against it, while four people, two of whom are employed by Radiant Nuclear, voted for it. A little more than five dozen people attended this town hall.
Audience reactions
Lisa Jarrell has lived in Bar Nunn for nearly four years. While she supports nuclear energy, she said she is against storing the waste near Bar Nunn.
Jarrell came to the town hall to find out why the waste storage needs to be so close to town. She said she is concerned about potential impacts on human and animal health, as well as any possible leakage into the water table.
“I felt like it [the town hall] was very, I guess slanted, and one-sided,” Jarrell said. “I felt the woman from Radiant who was doing a lot of answering the questions was very condescending and very evasive with her answers.”
Jarrell took the survey conducted by Cygnal but said she found the questions confusing, with a heavy political slant. Some survey questions asked about political beliefs and affiliation.
When asked his opinion of Radiant’s town hall, Daniel Estes said, “Not enough microphones and not enough people being able to talk. And they didn’t have them turned up so you could hear in the back.”
A resident of Bar Nunn for more than 40 years, Estes has worked in Shirley Basin, the gas fields, and uranium mines to support his family, including his seven kids. One of his main concerns about Radiant’s project is the working conditions, he said.
Jessie Dafoe, a Radiant representative, praised the county’s school district’s CTE programs and Wyoming’s Career and technical education programs. Later in the town hall, Radiant officials highlighted the need for welders at the Radiant facilities.
Estes, who is not a welder, is concerned that hiring directly out of CTE and high school programs will lead to poor quality welds. He’s also concerned about the possibility of poisonous gases being released from the metal during welds, leading to potential health concerns for welders.
Estes said he is also concerned that a gust of wind may overturn a vehicle carrying the microreactors, and if it takes months for Radiant to send another truck to pick up the reactor, the heater helium may cool off, which Estes believes could lead to a nuclear meltdown.
A couple who has lived in Bar Nunn for 13 years with their two daughters attended the town hall and expressed their frustration at what they described as evasive answers from Shivanandan.
“My impression would be a repeat of what I’ve seen before: a lot of unanswered questions, and unfortunately, the one unanswered question I had a follow up to was a promise they didn’t keep,” the wife said, referring to Radiant’s promise at the first town hall to notify residents at the next town hall when a survey was ready and make it available to all residents.
“The repeat problem we’re seeing is half truths and some lies,” the husband said.
The couple said that makes it really hard to have any trust in Radiant.
This story was published on July 17, 2025.