Plan lifting moratorium on nuclear construction moves to House floor

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — An Illinois House Committee approved a bill Tuesday afternoon to lift the 1987 ban on construction of new nuclear plants.

This comes as many downstate Illinoisans have urged state lawmakers to bring more nuclear plants online to replace closing coal and natural gas plants.

Scientists are already developing the new technology at Argonne Labs and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The federal government has also appropriated $2.5 billion since 2020 to work on nuclear generation.

Environmental groups oppose the plan due to concerns over regulation of the nuclear reactors and disposal of nuclear waste.

Nuclear Energy Information Services noted that the current law states the moratorium would stay in place until the federal government identified and approved a demonstrable technology or means for disposing of high level nuclear waste. David Kraft said the federal government won't have a disposal facility operational before 2048.

"The purpose of the legislation is to protect Illinois by minimizing the amount of high-level radioactive waste we have to deal with," Kraft said.

However, Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) said something must be done to meet the demand for Ameren customers.

"We will need about $250-$500 million in rate relief for residents in the MISO region year after year if we're going to continue down the road we are," Yednock said.

He stressed that the Ameren region needs consistency, reliability, and stability for the energy grid.

Senate Bill 76 passed out of the House Public Utilities Committee on a 20-1 vote. It now moves to the House floor for further consideration. The Senate approved this plan on a 39-13 vote on March 30. If passed by the House, the legislation will go to Gov. JB Pritzker's desk.