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Two big data centers are coming to a rural Utah community familiar with the boom-and-bust cycles of industry.

But despite nationwide and bipartisan backlash over the water and land resources they often consume, Carbon County residents say they are more concerned about how the data centers will be powered.

One complex, called “Jurassic Spark,” will have a massive natural gas plant. The second powered by a small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, by startup Valar Atomics, is causing more alarm.

“It’s all descending, these data centers,” said Cindy O’Neil, who is tracking the projects and shares updates on Facebook community pages. “They’re setting these things within a couple of miles of homes.”

O’Neil has lived in her house between Price and Wellington for 55 years, along a stretch of U.S. Highway 6 with sweeping views of the Book Cliffs.

Carbon County is an energy county, O’Neil acknowledged, which has long shaped the fabric of her community. Its mines produced nearly 10 million tons of coal in 2006. But since 2023, not a single pound of coal has been mined from the county. The Carbon Power Plant also shut down in 2015 after more than 60 years in operation.

“They say everything’s left us, and if we don’t grab these table scraps we’re not going to get anything,” said O’Neil. “I don’t think our county has to take the table scraps.”

Last week, the Utah Trust Lands Administration agreed to lease a square mile of state land for up to 100 years to Valar Atomics. The nuclear startup plans to use SMRs to power multiple types of industrial activities, including uranium TRISO-fuel processing to feed its reactors, water desalination, steel manufacturing, critical mineral refining — and data centers.

The site sits about five miles north of Wellington, surrounded by Bureau of Land Management lands.

The Valar site is expected to generate $35 million in lease rents over 50 years, according to information Trust Lands Administration staff presented to its board. Revenue collected from the project benefits Utah schools. The trust lands board unanimously approved the agreement on Sept. 17.

The agency declined to comment on the Valar project, directing The Salt Lake Tribune to its meeting materials.

‘People are up in arms’ over nuclear prospects

Three Carbon County residents who are employed or expected to be employed by Valar spoke in favor of the project during the board meeting. All three of the Carbon County Commissioners also voiced their support.

“[We] realize that this topic is a hot button now, along with data centers,” said Commissioner Larry Jensen. “It’s important that you understand that the Carbon County commissioners are committed to allowing these things to move forward. Even with the pushback — we realize that there are a few in our community who will push back — but the silent majority are the ones that we really represent.”

Longtime resident Cheryl Lupo balked at that assertion. She is running for a seat on the county commission this year. As an unaffiliated candidate, she had to collect 300 signatures to land on the ballot. The feedback she heard during that process was overwhelmingly opposed to data centers and nuclear plants, she told The Tribune.

“People are up in arms,” Lupo said. “Torches and pitchforks. Because they’re not being heard.”

Utah leaders welcomed Valar earlier this year, allowing it to test its “Ward250” microreactor at the San Rafael Energy Lab in neighboring Emery County. Valar announced it had achieved self-sustaining criticality in June. The company has plans to power a 30-megawatt nuclear-powered AI data center in Emery County as well, in partnership with computer chip manufacturer Nvidia.

SMRs remain largely speculative and experimental. They have yet to be deployed for commercial use in the United States. During last week’s Trust Lands Administration meeting, board chair Mike Nelson seemed to acknowledge the deal with Valar came with some unknowns.

“We weren’t always sure what to ask about,” Nelson said amid offering praise for the nuclear startup, “and probably still aren’t sure of everything to ask about because this is a first, right?”

Utah state has a troubled history with nuclear testing, though. Lupo’s mother died at 38. She believes the cause was downwinder effects from radioactive weapons testing in Nevada during the 1950s. Her mother lived in Carbon County at the time. She believes the fallout caused her grandfather’s death, too.

“I will never, ever be a proponent of nuclear,” Lupo said.

Natural gas to power a ‘Jurassic Spark’

Even before Valar started causing a stir, rumors swirled about another potential data center campus.

One resident shared suspicions during a Wellington City Council meeting on March 25 about “the threat of AI data centers” coming to the area, including chemicals leaking into water supplies and computing servers draining the area’s electrical grid, according to meeting minutes. She added that the county commission had a “big business” deal forthcoming with a non-disclosure agreement.

Less than a month later, plans for a data center project emerged. It’s not clear whether the project was connected to a non-disclosure agreement.

Altigen, a company that builds natural gas-power plants for data centers, had selected an area east of Wellington for its 1,200-acre “Jurassic Spark” project — nearly double the size of the Valar campus, Community Economic Development Board meeting minutes show. Plans call for a 250-megawatt gas plant initially, but it could eventually produce 3 gigawatts of electricity, said Commissioner Larry Jensen.

The entire state of Utah currently uses about 4 gigawatts.

Altigen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May, the commissioners discussed a gas pipeline right-of-way through Bureau of Land Management property that will supply the project. The commission unanimously approved a preliminary agreement to take ownership of a right-of-way for the pipeline to help facilitate Jurassic Spark.

Data center developers are increasingly turning to natural gas to power their projects since utilities have struggled to supply the intensive electricity demands of AI servers.

Last year, the Utah Legislature passed SB 132, allowing private companies with energy demands of 100 megawatts or more to build their own self-contained generating stations. The idea was to support business development, including data centers, without putting a strain on the public grid used by nearly everyone else. The result, however, was a surge of builders issuing plans and applying for permits to build power plants that run off natural gas supplies.

Natural gas, however, is a potent greenhouse pollutant mostly comprised of methane. It helps fuel climate change and adds to local air quality issues. And natural gas plants can produce immense amounts of heat, according to Utah State University Physics Professor Robert Davies.

But nuclear plants can produce even more heat than natural gas plants because they are less efficient, Davies noted.

“If you’re in a contained valley, it concentrates the problem,” Davies said.

The Wellington area is hemmed in by the Wasatch Range to the west and the Book Cliffs to the north and east.

“The heat island that the data centers produce, that concerns me,” Aspen Westenskow, who has lived in Carbon and Emery counties all her life, told The Tribune. “They go clear all this land, the brush, the trees. What helps cool the planet down? Not flat dirt.”

Westenskow said water remains her biggest source of distress. The region is water strapped, with every drop appropriated and spoken for.

Valar says its reactors use closed-loop helium cooling, and data developers have asserted they will also use closed-loop cooling systems with low water demands.

On July 3, Carbon County issued a statement responding to concerns voiced by residents. The region faces a difficult economic reality due to the decline of the coal industry, the statement said. That has shifted more of the county’s property tax burden to homeowners and remaining businesses.

The statement also addressed concerns over the non-disclosure agreements that have some residents have questioned.

“Without these agreements,” the statement reads, “some companies would choose not to explore projects in Carbon County.”

It’s not clear whether the county had such agreements with Altigen or Valar. But non-disclosure agreements are not uncommon in Carbon County. Resident Oran Stainbrook said he was aware of several when he served on the county planning commission and economic development board. He resigned from those positions a few months ago to take a job in Colorado, he said.

“I understand and can see why sometimes they’re appropriate,” Stainbrook said. “In this case of hyperscale data centers … I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Although he wasn’t aware of any agreements involving the data center projects, Stainbrook said he said he believed the commissioners were looking out for the county’s best interests, trying to lure jobs and investment.

But O’Neil, from her home on U.S. Highway 6, sees things differently.

“You shouldn’t be hiding what you and the company are going to bring to a community,” O’Neil said, “and not tell the community until it’s too late and a done deal.”