AP journalists visit communities affected by the decline of fossil fuel, examine the re-emergence of nuclear power and produce a state-by-state survey of energy policy and initiatives.
Rhode Island-based reporter Jennifer McDermott was researching energy policies in all 50 states when she made an unexpected discovery: Roughly two-thirds of states in the U.S., including ones led by Democrats, plan to use nuclear power as an essential part of their energy plan to replace coal, oil and natural gas. Some of those plans will rely on a new, smaller type of reactor now under development.
McDermott’s story detailed exclusively how the transition away from fossil fuels is forcing U.S. states to make hard choices about nuclear power. Although it does not produce greenhouse gases, nuclear fuel has a big downside: radioactive waste can remain dangerous for thousands of years.
Her state-by-state reporting was also the basis for a localization guide that allowed AP customers to tailor their energy stories to their own audiences.
TerraPower's Michael Anderson, manager of test engineers and technicians, speaks during a tour of the nuclear reactor development facility, in Everett, Wash., Jan. 13, 2022. TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates, as among the companies developing smaller, cheaper nuclear reactors that could supplement the U.S. power grid. Supporters of nuclear energy say it will be essential source of energy to stabilize power supplies as the world tries to move away from carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels.
AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
Test engineer Jacob Wilcox displays an ingot of sodium metal after cutting into it at TerraPower, a company developing and building small nuclear reactors, in Everett, Wash. Jan. 13, 2022.
AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
Molten sodium sits in a beaker atop a hot plate as part of a demonstration at Bill Gates-founded TerraPower, which is developing and building small nuclear reactors, in Everett, Wash., Jan. 13, 2022.
AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
TerraPower's Michael Anderson, manager of test engineers and technicians, holds a glass jar holding purified salt during a tour of the nuclear reactor development facility in Everett, Wash., Jan. 13, 2022. TerraPower plans to make its plant useful for today's energy grid with ever more renewable power. A salt heat “battery” is intended to enable a nuclear plant to ramp up electricity production on demand, offsetting dips in electricity from other sources.
AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
Geological testing takes place on the proposed site of a nuclear power plant south of the town of Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 12, 2022. Bill Gates' company TerraPower announced in November that it had chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor that will employ workers from a local coal-fired power plant scheduled to close soon. The proposed reactor will be one of the United States’ first small modular nuclear reactors.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Mayor Bill Thek sits in in his office at City Hall in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 12, 2022. “I’m not really on that bandwagon that everything is going to be green,” said Thek, who describes himself as a conservative. “But I’m absolutely for saving our environment. If we get in on the ground floor of being part of saving and making our environment better, I’m all for that.”
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
A deer, right, wanders through the streets of Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 12, 2022. The town, which has been reliant on the coal industry since its founding, is facing a major shift when the nearby coal-fired Naughton Power Plant closes in 2025 and a nuclear reactor is built in its place.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Taillights trace the path of a motor vehicle at the Naughton Power Plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 13, 2022. While the power plant will be closed in 2025, Bill Gates’ company TerraPower has chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled modular nuclear reactor.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Crystal Bowen, a generation clerk at the Naughton Power Plant, arrives at the plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 12, 2022. Bowen is encouraged that Kemmerer was chosen as the site of a nuclear reactor that will replace the Naughton plant in 2025. She says the nuclear plant should allow her and others with Rocky Mountain Power to shift to jobs at the new plant. “I don't know if Kemmerer would have survived if we lost the power plant and the coal mine. It may have just turned into a ghost town,” Bowen said.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Lights illuminate a coal mine at twilight in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 13, 2022. With the nearby coal-fired Naughton Powerplant being decommissioned in 2025, the fate of the coal mine and its workers is uncertain.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Coal miner Colt Quintard plays pool at a local bar in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jsn. 12, 2022. Quintard said he isn’t as convinced as others the new nuclear plant will be a big boon to the community. He fears many of the full-time workers will come from out of town due to the training needed, and some will commute from larger cities. “I don’t think this community is going to benefit from it the way a lot people think it's going to,’ said Quintard, who was raised in a nearby town of Big Piney. “Change is going to happen, regardless. There is nothing we can do.”
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
Snow drifts in front of an out-of-business shop in Kemmerer, Wyo., Jan. 13, 2022.
AP Photo / Natalie Behring
While McDermott reported her story, assisted by input from Washington reporter Matthew Daly, Rockies news editor Brady McCombs and Wyoming reporter Mead Gruver worked together to tell the story of a small Wyoming town that is replacing its coal plant with the nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor by TerraPower, a company started by Bill Gates.
At a downtown bar called Grumpies, pool-playing residents said they were excited by the economic opportunity, but also wary of becoming a nuclear town. Still, in the words of one resident: the town “needs something or it’ll become a dust bowl.”
Video journalist Manuel Valdes and photographers Elaine Thompson and Natalie Behring provided vivid visuals and crucial detail for the Wyoming story and also for McDermott’s mainbar, getting access to a lab near Seattle where TerraPower is building modular nuclear reactors.
A sign in Craig, Colo., supports the area’s coal industry, Nov. 19, 2021. The town in northwest Colorado is heavily dependent on its coal-fired power plant, the mine that feeds it, and related businesses. But the plant is closing with no plans to replace it.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Trinidad Loya, left, holds a photo of his father while standing next to his son, Trini Loya lll, near Craig Station in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021. All three generations worked at the power plant. The eldest Loya, now deceased, helped build the plant; his son was a plant operator and his grandson was an electrician. Craig Station, paying higher salaries and offering far more job security than most other jobs in the area, is closing.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Homes line streets in Craig, Colo., Nov. 19, 2021.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Steam billows from the Craig Station power plant in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Tim Osborn, Craig Station plant manager, stands near a generator in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021. Many of the workers find morale has gone down as the plant’s closure date inches closer.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Ron Geary, an electrician at Craig Station, stands near the Yampa River in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021. As the town’s coal plant faces closure, Geary fears for the mental health of his colleagues who are losing a part of their identity along with their job security. “It’s hard to get out of bed every day to go to work,” he said.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
A dragline excavator removes a surface layer to expose coal at Trapper Mining in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021. The town in northwest Colorado is losing its coal plant and the mine that feeds it; all 300 workers at both locations will eventually lose their jobs according to a plant owner.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Coal is hauled from the Trapper Mine in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Sean Hovorka, production superintendent, holds coal from the Trapper Mine in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Sean Hovorka, a production superintendent at Trapper Mining, displays coal at the mine in Craig, Colo., Nov. 18, 2021. Hovorka, recently elected to the town’s city council, sees a future in mining because of the shift to cleaner energy. “With the direction that the green energy is going you’re only gonna need more copper, you’re only going to need more, nickel, cobalt, lithium – all of those other things that have to be mined,” he said.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
A truck rusts in a field near the Wyman Museum in Craig, Colo., Nov. 19, 2021.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Ray Beck, former county commissioner and former mayor of Craig, Colo., poses for a photo in Craig, Nov. 19, 2021. According to Beck, 62% of Moffat County’s 2020 assessed value came from the top 10 taxpayers, all energy-related businesses. Of the looming collapse of the area’s coal industry he said, “We can’t recover from that.”
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
In other parts of the U.S., coal towns are being left behind. For a story illustrating the devastating effects of that, Denver-based Report for America corps member Patty Nieberg and Salt Lake City-based photographer Rick Bowmer traveled to a small town in Colorado where coal is being phased out after generations, with no plans to replace it. “We can’t recover from that,” a former mayor told the AP.
As the reporting and editing unfolded, the editors involved — from AP’s state government, West, climate and enterprise teams — recognized the common theme and decided to run the stories as a package over two days.
The stories, photos and videos showed the nation’s struggles as it shifts energy sources to stave off the worst effects of climate change, and the effects of that shift in local communities. And showcasing the AP’s 50-state footprint, the localization guide took the package a step further, helping AP’s customers bring the debate home for their own audiences.
Because Europe is wrestling with the same issues as the U.S., the three stories played widely at home and abroad, from local papers to national news outlets. McDermott’s lead story was used online by nearly 1,400 AP customers and had more than 18,000 Facebook interactions. The video package (which combined elements of the two nuclear stories) was downloaded by clients in at least 15 countries, from India to the United Arab Emirates.
For superior coverage bringing to light developments in energy policy across the country and the effects on people at a local level, the team of McDermott, McCombs, Gruver, Nieberg, Bowmer, Valdes, Thompson and Behring is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
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