BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana could soon be part of the federal government's push to invest in atomic energy.

The U.S. Department of Energy selected five states - Louisiana, Idaho, Oklahoma, Utah, and Tennessee to explore the development of nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses.

It's putting forward plans to support the industry with manufacturing, energy production, research, and disposal projects.

"The federal government said they wanted to try and reinvigorate the entire supply chain for nuclear power. From start, where you're enriching fuel, putting that fuel to work in reactors. Using some of the spent fuel to see whether that could be reused or repurposed," the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy press secretary Patrick Courreges said.

The DOE says that these campuses are a way to modernize the nation's full nuclear fuel cycle by having functions such as "fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing used nuclear fuel, and disposition of waste" all in the same place.

"I think everybody understands the general idea of nuclear power. It's a power source. This is what that is. It's another way to make energy. One of the concerns we've seen in more recent months is having electrical power available when there's new demands on the grid. This can only help that," Courreges said.

By being one of the five states chosen, it allows the state to continue negotiations.

While nothing is set in stone yet, the state is looking at three potential hubs for these projects, including right here in Baton Rouge.

Louisiana has proposed a multi-campus model across specialized hubs, with one of those hubs being in Baton Rouge due to LSU's research capabilities.

"The eventual negotiation may be none of what we proposed. It may be bits and pieces of what we propose."

Supporters say the project could benefit the state.

"The main thing you're looking at is one, new energy sources, which is becoming a bigger and bigger thing as you see folks talking about data centers, new industry coming in. Having electrical power's always a big deal. Always a big deal to diversify your sources, or the better it is for ratepayers, the better it is for energy security, so that's a positive," Courreges said.

Courreges says that nuclear energy has a foothold already in the state with plants like River Bend Station in West Feliciana Parish.

"The state actually gets about 20% of its energy from nuclear. You're talking about opportunities for business, support industries and bottom line: jobs," Courreges said.

WBRZ asked if River Bend and Waterford 3 in St. Charles Parish could potentially play a role.

"Certainly potentially. They've got expertise; if they wanted to expand, there might be some functions that it don't do now that they would like to do. That certainly could be part of the conversation down the line," Courreges said.

However, groups like the Alliance for Affordable Energy have concerns about these potential moves the five states could be making.

"Nuclear energy is always a complicated subject, primarily because of the costs to ratepayers." If nuclear is a big investment that the state is trying to make, we have to make sure that we're doing it in a way that's fair for everybody, not just for these big industrial customers," Alliance for Affordable Energy Government Affairs and Policy Coordinator Jackson Voss said.

"I think that the question, though, is whether or not these investments really make sense in the best interest of the state as a whole."

The Department of Energy says the campuses have the potential to generate as much as $10 billion in state and local tax revenues.