A bipartisan bill introduced late last week in the South Carolina legislature would add promotion of small modular reactors to the responsibilities of the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Committee.
House Bill 5118 would also restructure the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council by requiring that the director of the council be a full-time employee of the governor’s office, according to the text of the measure.
Legislators introduced the bill on Feb. 15. The proposal’s first stop is the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry, which had not scheduled consideration of the bill as of deadline for RadWaste Monitor.
The bill has seven Democratic co-sponsors and 55 Republican co-sponsors. South Carolina’s state government is overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans. The seven Democrats on House Bill 5118 account for 20% of all the Democrats in the lower chamber of the state’s bicameral legislature.
South Carolina’s legislative session this year runs until May 9. The session opened on Jan. 9.
