Numerous recent articles regarding nuclear power, and introduction of legislation (SB1527 & HB3604) allowing for the construction of more large nuclear powerplants in Illinois should warn Illinoisans to both pay greater attention to Illinois energy future and – watch your wallets.
The good news is that coverage, commentary and legislative discussion is finally publicly acknowledging some of the downsides and historic failures of Illinois’ nuclear power. Unfortunately, most of this coverage and debate continues to exclude endemic, long-standing, unresolved problems with nuclear. Thus, adding more reactors only compounds these liabilities.
The proposed legislation repeals the conditional 1987 moratorium on constructing new nuclear power plants until such time as the federal government honors its legally required obligation to provide an operating disposal facility for the high-level radioactive wastes (HLRW) reactors create. The moratorium served both as leverage to get the Feds to comply if they wanted more nuclear plants, and to protect Illinois from becoming a de facto HLRW dump, potentially for the nation.
Moratorium repeal will remove this last vestige of leverage, ensuring HLRW – all 11,000+ tons of it, growing by 250-300 tons annually – will remain in Illinois indefinitely. Building more large reactors only worsens the problem. It’s like authorizing the construction of a new Sears Tower without requiring bathrooms.
Despite testimony over the past three years, this very purpose of the moratorium has been minimized or totally ignored by the legislature, the Governor and the media.
Much of the current reporting and legislative discussion continues to perpetuate tired, discredited myths about renewables (intermittency; insufficient quantity and availability, etc.). Many pro-nuclear advocates still hawk only the (alleged) benefits of nuclear – job creation; increased tax base; “clean,” “carbon-free,” “emissions free” (all incorrect).
This resembles the mentality of an adolescent buying a first car: if it’s fast, red, and a convertible – that’s the one! Cost? I got a job, and parents. Insurance? I won’t have an accident. Mileage? There’s plenty of fuel. Alternatives? What for? – this one’s red!
“Arithmetic is not an opinion.” – energy expert Amory Lovins
Both in unacknowledged communications with the Governor’s office and in multiple testimonies before legislative committees over the last three years, our organization attempted to elevate discussion of the many important nuclear issues continuously ignored. While the details are too numerous to meaningfully amplify in this space, among them are:
• “It’s the Waste, Stupid!”: As illustrated above, everyone makes token nods to the continuously growing HLRW disposal problem, and then moves on to their own narrow priorities, while irresponsibly promoting adding more HLRW.
• Just Transitions for Reactor Communities and Workers: Like it or not, reactors will eventually close, hopefully by choice and not by other unpleasant means. Since 2014 we’ve advocated establishing escrowed “just transitions” funds that would protect local tax bases, and provide worker re-training programs to soften the inevitable blows that “company towns” experience when their largest employer leaves. This concept has been routinely ignored.
• Ratepayers and Taxpayers — Watch Your Wallets!: Recall that the Illinois legislature previously approved $3+ billion in subsidies from 2016 to 2026 for several of Constellation’s reactors that were not economically competitive. Adding more into the mix of already uncompetitive reactors will most certainly create an energy glut that will further deflate prices – resulting in more ratepayer pain. This applies to both “small modular nuclear reactors” (SMNRs) and proposed full-scale nukes.
• Anti-Corruption Citizen Oversight: the nuclear-related scandals, indictments and guilty pleas in Illinois, Ohio and South Carolina, and the outrageous cost and delay of Georgia’s Vogtle 3&4 reactors argue mightily for a different kind of nuclear oversight. Our unsuccessful 2024 proposal to create an Illinois Citizen Oversight Commission attempted to address this problem, and ensure that the voices of 12+ million Illinoisans — not just those of the politically well-connected and paternalistic nuclear elites — would be reflected in crafting and deciding Illinois’ energy future.
• Regulatory erosion: The struggle to adequately fund the Illinois Dept. of Nuclear Safety, and the Trump Administration’s intention to depopulate independent regulatory agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a serious safety concern for the most nuclear-reliant state in the U.S.
“Arithmetic is not an opinion.” (#2)
Additional to nuclear’s many inherent downsides, the negative effects its expansion will have on the genuinely clean energy goals and technology transformations expressed in the FEJA and CEJA legislation are also routinely ignored.
As Illinois charts a new lower-carbon energy future, understand one can get the same result from more renewables, greater efficiency, energy storage, and an improved transmission grid – all without the inevitable radioactive waste, more subsidization, and threat of nuclear accidents.
In June 2023, FERC Chairman Willie Phillips stated, “We have as much generation waiting to be connected to the grid as double the amount of generation currently on the grid.”
A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2023 report indicated that 1,260 gigawatts of new renewables and 680 gigawatts of storage capacity awaited transmission system interconnection. Adjusting for renewables’ intermittency, this amounts to nearly 13 times the currently installed U.S. nuclear capacity using already available technology, without radioactive wastes.
A 2024 Berkeley report indicated that Illinois had ~85 gigawatts worth of renewables and storage awaiting grid connection – adjusting for intermittency, the equivalent of ~25 proposed large nuclear reactors. No new technology needed; no radioactive waste produced.
Illinois needs to aggressively prioritize more renewables, efficiency, energy storage, and transmission upgrades, not more nuclear power and waste.
