Two Republicans who chair state legislative committees on energy and utilities say they want to bring more nuclear power online in Wisconsin in the coming years.
To start that effort, they introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to publicly support nuclear power and fusion energy.
“The resolution, more than anything, makes a formal declaration that Wisconsin is open for business — it is open for nuclear,” said Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, who chairs the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee.
He’s working with state Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, chair of the Senate Utilities and Tourism Committee, on the effort.
In addition to the resolution, they plan to propose a nuclear siting study to identify locations around Wisconsin that make sense as sites for nuclear power plants. They also hope to bring an international nuclear summit to the state in the coming years that would help market Wisconsin for development and research opportunities, Steffen said.
He said completing a siting study could take two years off the development time for a new nuclear plant, which can take a decade or more to bring online.
Wisconsin has one active nuclear power plant, located in Two Rivers. The Point Beach Nuclear Plant came online in the 1970s and has a generating capacity of 1,200 megawatts. In 2020, the plant’s owners applied for a license renewal with federal regulators to keep the plant running through 2050. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a decision in that case scheduled for this December.
The state already has assets that it can build on to expand investment and research around nuclear energy, Steffen said.
He said the University of Wisconsin-Madison has one of the nation’s best nuclear engineering programs, and there are several companies that have spun off from the university working on nuclear technology.
“Beyond it being a necessary part of our energy production portfolio, it can also be an incredible economic development opportunity for the state of Wisconsin,” Steffen said.