Mississippi is a logical choice for a new reactor because the populace is relatively poor and less organized, and therefore the local opposition will be weaker. This irritates environmentalists, who call this environmental racism (toxic waste incinerators and the like have already been sited in certain poor counties in Mississippi). But the reactor will be good for Mississippi, bringing jobs and a valuable export (electricty) to the state. (And the environmentalists are mistaken to opppose nuclear energy, since the alternative is not solar or wind, but coal.)
If they used coal, it would mean jobs for the two poorest states in America, MI and WV.
Why? The site near Scottsboro is already built or nearly so. It has been in the paper here.
They already had two nuclear explosions in Mississippi (Project Dribble).
Local activist groups in Mississippi have already banded together - to campaign FOR the reactor at Grand Gulf.