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The race to dominate nuclear power’s comeback is on, and red states are setting the pace.
In early January, Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, sped to Mar-a-Lago to make the case to then-President-elect Trump for Utah to become a U.S. nuclear hub, a key part of his recently launched “Project Gigawatt” to meet industry demand and double Utah’s electricity supply.
Utah state leaders have announced pushes to install dozens of microreactors on the state’s military properties, as well as establish voluntary “energy development zones” to speed nuclear’s deployment statewide. Utah, in the vision of its Senate president, is angling to become “one of the nuclear headquarters for the world.”
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, in a November announcement that Abilene Christian University would be building the country’s first liquid salt advanced reactor, declared, “We are ready to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power.” In February, Texas A&M University announced it’s offering land to not one, but four companies to build small modular reactors, or SMRs.
This can-do attitude is spreading like wildfire. State legislatures practically everywhere, but especially in red states, are advancing bills to position their states to corner the nuclear market. This is not to mention that U.S. allies and adversaries—from the United Kingdom to China—are all pumping out announcements to do the same.
Under our new governor, Mike Braun, Indiana is vying to lead, too. At the highest levels, Gov. Braun has signaled his interest in the globally sought-after technology, including, first and foremost, by making Suzanne Jaworowski one of his eight cabinet secretaries. Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Jaworowski is a veteran and proven leader in the energy and advanced nuclear industries, cutting her teeth as a senior nuclear official in the first Trump Department of Energy, and most recently on the leadership team of MISO, the air traffic controller for the Midwest electrical grid.
To get a sense of how the Braun administration’s strategy on nuclear was shaping up, I phoned Jaworowski last week.
“It is really an unprecedented time in the energy industry and our economy and in my lifetime for sure,” she communicated. “I don’t think we’ve had this kind of energy demand in the country since post-World War II, and so this is something that Indiana as a state we want to take advantage of.”
In February, just three weeks into the new administration, Indiana launched the “Advanced Nuclear First Mover Initiative” as a co-chair alongside Kentucky, Tennessee, Wyoming and New York. Indiana is on
the move.
In Secretary Jaworowski’s eyes, Indiana’s many natural assets position it well for nuclear’s renaissance. We are a known manufacturing hub located centrally in the country. We have one of the best nuclear engineering departments in the world at Purdue University. For the last three years, the Legislature has been building out the legal framework for advanced nuclear’s deployment. And big new-energy customers—namely data centers, $14 billion of which are coming to Indiana—are interested partners in helping finance clean and reliable energy resources for their operations, something already done in Pennsylvania.
Looking forward, Jaworowski offered that the state is working both to build on the recent Purdue report identifying sites in Indiana suitable for SMRs, and pin down opportunities for SMR part production for the U.S. market, and globally. “Indiana is a prime state that’s being looked at for bringing the supply chain for supporting nuclear development,” she said. It is a “very interesting investment opportunity.”
The Braun administration is still in its early days—just shy of two months—so much more is yet to unfold. But as I’ve maintained in recent columns, whether the state captures the potentially history-defining investments of this technology is also a function of whether we beat the competition. It’s go time.
I commend Braun and Jaworowski for their opening act and eagerly look forward to their next moves.•
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Gemelas is chief operating officer at Climate Solutions Fund, outstanding fellow of Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation and a proud Greek-American. Send comments to [email protected].
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