Nuclear Energy Insight

March 2008—California’s two nuclear power plants produce approximately 16 percent of the state’s electricity. And together, the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre plants avoided the emission of 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2006.

California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R) says that additional nuclear plants could do much to help the state meet its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets. That is why he has introduced a bill to overturn California’s three-decade moratorium on nuclear plant construction. Under the ban, passed by the state legislature in 1976, no new nuclear plant could be built unless a used fuel repository is in operation.

“Modern, efficient and safe nuclear power should be considered part of the solution [for] improving California’s ability to generate reliable, affordable and clean energy so as to benefit California’s consumers, the economy and the environment,” DeVore’s bill states. A committee was to consider the measure in February.

Washington state, like California, is looking at the option of new nuclear plants. In late January, two lawmakers introduced a bill that would require the state to establish a task force to study new nuclear plants as a way of helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Oklahoma, too, is exploring nuclear energy. A state legislator has introduced a bill that would facilitate the construction of new nuclear plants. The measure, offered by Rep. Mike Reynolds (R), includes a provision that would allow for cost recovery of an investment in a new nuclear plant. The Oklahoma House expects to consider the bill later in the session.

The Oklahoma, Washington and California bills are the most recent of a spate of state legislation that encourages new nuclear plant construction. The Wisconsin legislature is considering a bill that would repeal the state’s nuclear moratorium. Under the moratorium, the public service commission is restricted from issuing a certificate of public convenience for the construction of a nuclear plant unless a facility is available for disposal of the nuclear waste. State lawmakers expect to act on the legislation during this session.

In neighboring Minnesota, legislators expected to consider a similar measure, which repeals the ban on issuing a certificate of need for the construction of a new nuclear plant, when the legislature reconvened in February.

The South Carolina House of Representatives has passed legislation that adds nuclear power to the list of energy sources to be included in any future energy strategy promoting carbon-free, non-greenhouse-gas-emitting sources in the state. The bill states that any such strategy “encourage the development and use of nuclear energy and indigenous, renewable energy resources.” It would update existing state energy policy, which mentions the development of renewable energy but not nuclear power.

The House legislation is an amended version of a bill (S. 360) passed last year in the state Senate, which was also directed at updating the state’s energy strategy but included nuclear power in the definition of renewable energy.

—Read more articles in Nuclear Energy Insight and Insight Web Extra.