Will Texas be the epicenter of the National Nuclear Renaissance?

Texas lawmakers are considering legislation that will revive the state’s nuclear industry through taxpayer-funded incentive programs. State Senator Cody Harris, a Republican from Palestinian in East Texas, proposed to allocate $2 billion to the fund to establish a Texas advanced nuclear deployment office.

The bill proposes the use of public dollars to fund nuclear power and provide grants to nuclear reactors. HB 14 creates state coordinators to assist with the state and federal permitting process.

Harris told members of the Texas House Committee on Senators last week that Texas energy solutions are needed as stocks in the state of electricity grids grow from data centers and other energy-intensive industries.

He said Texas relies too much on intermittent energy sources like the wind and the sun. Harris called the investment in nuclear power a strategic order for the United States. He said there is a global race for energy domination ongoing and it will involve enormous national security implications.

“By passing this bill, Texas will become the epicenter of the National Nuclear Renaissance,” Harris said. “Texas will attract billions of dollars in private capital investments and create tens of thousands of highly paid jobs for the Texan up and down the nuclear chain.”

A week ago, at the annual energy conference Cerawek in Houston, nuclear power was highly praised by both US government officials and big technology.

Throughout the conference, nuclear reactors were described as the answer to increased power demand from data centers and artificial intelligence if technology could be expanded.

The Texas Electric Grid has four large nuclear power units at two sites, including two of Comanche Peak, located about 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth. According to factory owner Vistra Corp, on a typical day, they produce enough electricity to power over a million homes.

Completed in 1993, the second unit of the Comanche Peak is the latest large-scale nuclear reactor that will be online in Texas.

A small, one megawatt molten salt test reactor is under construction under the newly completed laboratory at Abilene Christian University in an underground ditch. Abilene-based Natura Resources is one of two companies with permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulation Authority to build the so-called “advanced” reactors scheduled to be completed in 2027.

Another company, California-based Kairos Power, is building a 35-megawatt test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the 80-year capital of American nuclear science.

Gov. Governor Greg Abbott has been bullish in recent years about making Texas a nuclear leader. In August 2023, Abbott directed the Texas Public Utilities Commission to establish a working group to research and plan advanced reactor use across the state.

The state-recommended task force in November 2024 put $5 billion aside for the Nuclear Fund. Jimmy Grottfeltie, a former Texas Utilities Commission member, testified in support of the new bill at last week’s hearing after spending 14 months with the task force.

He said the bill would place Texas on the path to becoming a new nuclear industry leader. If Texas is done correctly, Texas could see more than 100,000 jobs and more than $50 billion in addition to the state’s economy, Grottofeltie said, based on an economic survey commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin’s Office of Business Research.

“Everyone in the nuclear space wants to build plants in Texas,” Grottofeltie said. “We’re in a low-regulation, low-cost state. We have a supply chain. We have a workforce. What this bill does is step into every other state.”

Nextera Energy Resources, a Florida-based clean energy power company, is considering bringing the nuclear power plant, which has been closed in Iowa back online. A few years ago, Nexella was a move she didn’t even think about, said Michele Wheeler, vice president of regulatory and political affairs.

The company is also working with Dow and X-Energy as the two companies are developing advanced small-scale reactor technologies at their Sea Drift, Texas site. Although this is based on high-temperature gas cooling reactor technology, the Natura Resources project in Abilene uses liquid fuel and molten salt cooling technology.

For American nuclear production to be successful at affordable prices, someone needs to be the first to be there, Wheeler said. “Everyone is like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be second.’ So, how do you make the right incentives for those who go first to go first to take the risk first? ” Wheeler said during a breakfast session about Texas Power at Thera Week.

“Everyone in the nuclear space wants to build plants here in Texas.”

– Jimmy Grottfeltie, former member of Texas Public Interest Commission

Thomas Gleason, chairman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, said it could be Texas intervention. With a $23 billion surplus, the state has the ability to partner with private industries to ensure Texas leads the nuclear path, Gleason said.

Gleason sees nuclear as a solution to a massive new power demand in the state’s forecast. As he traveled around the country, he told people that Texas was not about energy transitions, but about energy expansion.

“We need almost everything,” Gleason said. “If you care about the environment, if you care about clean air, you love the batteries and the wind. I’m happy that I love solar. Love the nucleus. It has to be part of the solution.”

Despite some of the efforts to bring low-carbon electricity in the energy sector online, nuclear development is hampered by disaster concerns, radioactive waste, a history of projects that go far beyond budgets, and its infamous, painstaking regulatory requirements.

However, the nuclear appears to have that moment with bipartisan support. Texas Republicans praise the reliability of their power sources as they have expressed concern about many of the state’s daily energy needs, which are less expensive but filled with intermittent winds and solar. Meanwhile, state Democrats are helping to add low carbon energy to the grid.

Opponents of the bill called the incentive program a taxpayer handout and urged the electricity sector to compete in the state’s open energy market.

Cyrus Reid, the conservation and legislative secretary for the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, said it is a law that grants grants and loans to Texas funding, a law passed in 2023.

“It’s a very different proposal,” Reed said.

John Unfress, a retired Austin Energy Program specialist who evaluates nuclear efforts in consumer advocacy groups with civic contracts, also expressed concern about funding small modular reactor developers in public dollars.

The bill outlines three layers of the funding program. The first tier provides reimbursement grants for costs associated with initial development of advanced nuclear reactors. This includes costs such as technology development, site planning, design and early licensing operations by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

The second tier includes grants of up to $200 million for the cost of construction for projects with permits being reviewed by the NRC. Once the project is finished, the third tier award will be awarded to the operating cost.

Reed and Umphress warned that businesses can see the money just to secure a permit. They believe such grants go beyond fair incentives.

“They never work on a real grid and can have a taxpayer fund of up to $200 million,” Reed said. “That seems wrong to us.”