Gov. Pritzker looks to possible changes in Illinois nuclear

When Pritzker vetoed S.B. 76, he spoke in support of allowing small modular reactors, explaining that he was specifically against large-scale nuclear. In an official statement, he said that the bill would have opened the door to “the proliferation of large-scale nuclear reactors that are so costly to build that they will cause exorbitant ratepayer-funded bailouts.” At the end of 2023, he signed H.B. 2473, repealing Illinois’s construction moratorium for projects with a rated nameplate capacity of 300 MW or less, beginning January 1, 2026.

Now, it seems that Pritzker has changed tack. On August 13, in response to a question on managing energy costs, he said, “We in Illinois can do something very important; we can get rid of the moratorium on nuclear, which has been in place for decades now. 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 the transition to renewable energy everywhere and to our 2050 goal of clean energy.”

Potential change: State Sen. Sue Rezin (R., Dist. 38) has been an outspoken advocate for and the face of the new nuclear push in the Illinois legislature, sponsoring and authoring many of the nuclear-related bills in the Senate. In February, she introduced S.B. 1527, which seeks to fully repeal Illinois’s moratorium, allowing for projects over 300 MW via amendment to the Public Utilities Act. However, since June, the bill has sat inactive in the Assignments Committee.

Rezin said about the bill in an opinion piece published in Crain’s Chicago Business, “As other states and nations invest in nuclear power, Illinois cannot afford to be left behind.” She explained, “With fossil fuel plant closures, the need for stable baseload energy like nuclear has never been greater.”

More legislation: Regardless of whether the moratorium repeal will materialize or not, momentum is continuing in the SMR space in industry and in the legislature.

Rezin recently filed S.B. 2681. While the full text of the bill is not yet publicly available, a press release from her office explains that the legislation is intended to streamline the siting a permitting process for SMRs.

Specifically, under the bill, all applicable state agencies would be required to “take final action on a permit application for an SMR within 150 days of it being complete. If no action is taken within that timeframe and no valid extension is granted, the application would be considered approved.” Agencies would be allowed only one extension for good cause.