Palo Verde, with three reactors and a combined capacity of about 4,000 MWe, is the only nuclear power plant in Arizona. But that could very well change soon if state officials have their way.

Much like other states in the West, Arizona believes nuclear energy is a vital component of the state’s future energy portfolio. At a special meeting of the Arizona Corporation Commission on February 24, commissioners, officials, and others in attendance showed broad bipartisan support for expanding nuclear energy.

Gov. Katie Hobbs put the brakes on legislation that would have eliminated some of Arizona’s regulations and oversight of small modular reactors, technology that is largely under consideration by data centers and heavy industrial power users.

The top three utilities in Arizona are teaming up to explore opportunities to add nuclear generation facilities in the state.

Arizona Public Service (APS), Salt River Project (SRP), and Tucson Electric Power (TEP) announced in a February 5 news release that they are working together to assess possible sites, including retiring coal plants. The group is looking at possibilities for both small modular reactors—units generating 300 MW or less—and potential large reactor projects, which could generate nearly five times the power.

Denver-based Energy Fuels Inc., one of the largest uranium producers in the United States, has signed a landmark agreement with the Navajo Nation on the transport of uranium ore along federal and state highways that cross through Navajo land. The agreement allows the resumption of uranium ore transport from Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain Mine in northern Arizona to the company’s White Mesa Mill in southern Utah, where the ore is processed into natural uranium concentrates (U₃O₈).