Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, April 23rd. I'm Mac Watson.

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Wyoming's notorious winds stole the show Wednesday in Kemmerer, as TerraPower opened its gates to the media for its nuclear plant's first day of construction. Cowboy State Daily's Renee Jean reports that once built, the Natrium plant in Kemmerer will become the nation's first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant.

"This is a momentous occasion, I think for Wyoming, this will be the first commercial scale molten sodium cooled nuclear plant in America, at least, if not the world. I mean, there are some smaller plants elsewhere in the world. Terra Power is already working to commercialize this with Meta to potentially power some of its data centers, maybe even one in Cheyenne. Cheyenne is a quote, natural candidate, according to one of the company officials. So you know, just a very interesting and exciting day here in Kemmerer."

Wednesday marked the first day of construction for the nuclear part of the project, which company officials say will be one of the first of its kind in size and scale in both America and the world.

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A Natrona County judge Wednesday didn't rule on an effort to halt Wyoming's Heartbeat Abortion Ban. Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reports that an opposition lawyer called it "unconstitutionally vague," while Attorney General Keith Kautz argued a heartbeat lets us "know there is a life to protect."

"Judge Forgey took under advisement whether to block Wyoming's brand new, latest abortion ban. This one, the Human Heartbeat Act would ban abortion from the point a heartbeat could be heard. The pro choice plaintiffs call it vague, say it violates a woman's health care right, asked the judge to block it. They say that they're the plaintiffs of birthing-age woman, a couple, obese, an abortion clinic and a funding group will suffer harm if the law is not blocked. Whereas the state, the Attorney General said, 'No, this, the state has this compelling interest to defend unborn life, and this time, after nearly four years of litigation, now we're going to prove it.'"

Judge Daniel Forgey told Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz representing the state and attorney Peter Modlin arguing for the plaintiffs that he appreciated the "quality" of the arguments.

Read the full story HERE.

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Bruno, one of Wyoming's most popular grizzlies, had his face ripped open last fall in what many bear observers believe was a fight with another male grizzly. Outdoors reporter Mark Heinz reports that after being captured and treated for his wounds, he showed up fully healed this spring.

"So last year, Bruno, we don't know for sure what people think he probably got in a fight with another male bear had a big, old, gnarly, nasty gash down his face and was oozing, you know, all that good gooey stuff you get. You get in nature. But this year, he showed up looking pretty much like new ones, like, what the bear get plastic surgery? Well, it turns out what happens is the federal, uh, bear biology team, they were going to capture and color him anyway, and while they had him, you know, tranquilized, they went ahead and treated that wound."

Wyoming and federal wildlife agents and scientists generally have a hands-off approach toward such things as wildlife injuries, preferring to let nature take its course.

Read the full story HERE.

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Some county Republican parties are asking the Wyoming Republican P