Two Republicans who chair state legislative committees on energy and utilities say they want to bring more nuclear power online in Wisconsin in the coming years.
To start that effort, they introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to publicly support nuclear power and fusion energy.
“The resolution, more than anything, makes a formal declaration that Wisconsin is open for business — it is open for nuclear,” said Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, who chairs the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee.
He’s working with state Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, chair of the Senate Utilities and Tourism Committee, on the effort.
In addition to the resolution, they plan to propose a nuclear siting study to identify locations around Wisconsin that make sense as sites for nuclear power plants. They also hope to bring an international nuclear summit to the state in the coming years that would help market Wisconsin for development and research opportunities, Steffen said.
He said completing a siting study could take two years off the development time for a new nuclear plant, which can take a decade or more to bring online.
Steffen said the biggest factor pushing him toward supporting nuclear power was seeing the large energy needs of Microsoft’s data center campus in Mount Pleasant. The first phase of that project is expected to use more electricity than all the homes in Dane County combined.
“That data center is just one of four or more that Wisconsin may host over the coming years,” he said. “As we continue to be in a deficit situation of energy production here in Wisconsin, we really need to be expanding the opportunities and options for energy production.”
Proponents of nuclear power say it can serve as a reliable source of energy that can run continuously — like a coal-fired power plant without carbon dioxide emissions. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind are reliant on the conditions outdoors.
“Nuclear energy has the potential to be the clean and reliable answer to powering our future,” said state Sen. Bradley in a Jan. 16 statement. “The technology surrounding nuclear energy has developed a great deal over the past few decades; it’s safer and more efficient than ever before.”
Nuclear energy accounted for about 16 percent of the energy generated by Wisconsin providers in 2023, according to the state Public Service Commission’s most recent strategic energy assessment.
Wisconsin has one active nuclear power plant, located in Two Rivers. The Point Beach Nuclear Plant came online in the 1970s and has a generating capacity of 1,200 megawatts. In 2020, the plant’s owners applied for a license renewal with federal regulators to keep the plant running through 2050. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a decision in that case scheduled for this December.