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“We already got rid of it on small modular nuclear. We can do
that on large nuclear. It’s going to be an important part of a
transition to renewable energy everywhere,” Pritzker said.
State Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, has proposed several pieces of
legislation to end Illinois’ ban on new nuclear power plants.
Pritzker vetoed one of Rezin’s measures in 2023. Later that
year, the governor signed Rezin’s bill to end the moratorium on
small modular reactors (SMRs).
Legislation to end the moratorium on large-scale projects did
not clear the General Assembly last spring.
“In order to have enough power for the new economy, the AI
economy, it’s important that we have reliable capacity power
available to us at the lowest cost, which is nuclear,” Rezin
told The Center Square.
James Walker, a nuclear physicist for NANO Nuclear Energy Inc.
said data centers and artificial intelligence centers are
power-intensive.
“You can’t sustain those on wind or solar. You would need a
higher baseload power. The good thing about the new generation
of nuclear is that you don’t even need to upgrade your local
infrastructure,” Walker told The Center Square.
Last month, Rezin introduced Senate Bill 2681 to streamline the
permitting process for small reactors.
“My bill mandates that all state agencies act on permit
applications for SMRs within 150 days of the application being
deemed complete,” Rezin explained.
The Morris Republican added that if no action is taken within
that time period, the application would be considered approved
unless an extension was granted.
Rezin said that if Illinois doesn’t act, companies will go to
neighboring states.
“They can go to Indiana, which many of the tech companies are
building out in Indiana and Wisconsin, because they have already
passed these similar bills that provide reliability and
predictability for companies who are looking to invest very
significant amounts of money; billions of dollars of
investments,” Rezin said.
Rezin said she hopes SB 2681 is called during the fall veto
session.
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