On the last day of its session, the Illinois legislature exempted advanced nuclear reactors from a state ban on new nuclear power plants.
The state House on May 19 approved a bill lifting the ban by 84-22 and the state Senate voted 36-14 to go along with their House colleagues.
The second House-amended version of Senate Bill 76 strikes a provision of Illinois law that banned construction of new nuclear reactors until the federal government opened a permanent repository for high-level waste.
However, the measure specifies that any new nuclear plants have to be advanced nuclear reactors, as described in federal law.
Illinois lawmakers also added a little protection for existing nuclear power plants in their bill by specifying that existing reactors need not be replaced by an advanced reactor to get their federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses renewed.
Illinois Gov. Jay Robert “J.B.” Pritzker (D) had not signed the bill as of Friday.
