The Senate passed a legislative proposal that will dedicate an estimated $350 million of public dollars to pay for the development of nuclear power in Texas.
That’s far below the $2 billion first suggested for the fund when House Bill 14 was filed by Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, and even further below what some state officials had hoped would be allocated to the nuclear fund when it was first conceived of late last year.
Despite the reduction, industry insiders see the bill’s advancement in the Legislature as a clear signal that Texas’ political leadership sees a future in nuclear power. That segment of the power industry has languished in recent years in cost overruns and a cumbersome federal approval process.
“Texas is on the precipice of passing landmark legislation that will put Texas at the center of the nuclear renaissance,” said Reed Clay, president of the Texas Nuclear Alliance.
In recent years, however, nuclear power has seen a rapid increase in political support. In Texas, Republicans support nuclear power for its ability to offer power at the flip of the switch. The power source also appeals to Democrats’ environmental sensibilities for its lack of climate change-inducing greenhouse gas.
Last week, President Donald Trump issued four executive orders to speed up the regulatory process and open up federal lands for nuclear power projects with a goal of quadrupling the capacity of the country’s nuclear fleet.
“The idea is Texas should lead in this endeavor,” said Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, the sponsor of the proposal. “There has been a change of leadership on a national basis with a reemphasis on nuclear technology.”
Before becoming law, the House must agree with any changes made in the Senate. It would then head to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has previously shown support for the grant program.
The governor’s office would oversee the nuclear energy fund and the grant program. His staff would also lead an effort to speed up the permitting process by hiring a coordinator to help qualifying programs navigate federal regulations.
Roughly 80% of the fund’s $350 million would be dedicated toward reimbursing construction costs for functional nuclear reactors. The remainder would be used for research and development.
It is the second fund created by the Texas Legislature designed to encourage the construction of power plants. In 2023, lawmakers created the $5 billion Texas Energy Fund in hopes of bringing more natural gas power plants to Texas.
Schwertner said he expects the nuclear office to be up and running by the end of the year. However, working nuclear reactors would likely not power on until 2030 or later.
The fund would focus on small, modular nuclear reactors, an emerging technology that has seen recent developments in Texas, including the first federally approved research reactor in more than 40 years at Abilene Christian University.
Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said during the debate that using tax money to incentivize those types of reactors was preferable to more conventional large-scale reactors that have seen major cost overruns in recent years. Texas has not built a new large reactor since the opening of the second Comanche Peak reactor in 1993.
“I just want to make sure that we are just as vigilant and as cautious and as careful with the taxpayers’ money as being a steward in their investment as we tend to be with other sources of generation,” Menéndez said.
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