(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Senate approved a deal to spend $2.25 million on both a nuclear siting study and holding a nuclear power summit.
The Senate voted 28-5 to approve Senate Bill 146, which includes spending $1 million on a nuclear power siting study, more than $140,000 while adding a full-time employee focusing on nuclear power and $250,000 to organize a Nuclear Power Summit in Madison at a new University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering building.
Nuclear power represents 45% of the United States’ carbon-free electricity from just 94 reactors and Wisconsin is in need of additional electrical capacity with the potential for several new large-scale data centers to go online in coming years, according to Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin.
“This is huge for our state,” Bradley said. “This is great for economic development. It is great for all of our ratepayers. It’s got great bipartisan support.”
During a committee meeting on the bill, Rep.. David Steffen, R-Howard, said that a planned Microsoft data center in Pleasant Prairie would use as much power as the entire city of Madison and a potential Cloverleaf data center in Port Washington would as much power as the entire city of Los Angeles.
A Meta data center is also reportedly in planning for Beaver Dam.
Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie, said that he was concerned about the costs and risks related to nuclear energy.
“Chernobyl and Fukashima,” Wirch said. “Two of the greatest disasters we have ever seen happened because something went wrong with nuclear power.”
Bradley said the state already was receiving positive nuclear energy news with EnergySolutions announcing it was beginning planning and looking for a permit to reopen Kewaunee Power Station in Kewaunee County while working with WEC Energy Group.
With rising energy demand driven by data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial growth, the need for reliable, carbon-free power has never been greater,” President and CEO of EnergySolutions Ken Robuck said in a statement. “ By bringing our nuclear licensing and project development expertise to the table, we look forward to supporting WEC in the early planning stages for new nuclear generation in Wisconsin.”
