Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker’s (D) on Friday signed a law that partially repealed a 36-year ban on new nuclear reactors.
The law, HB2473, also removed spent nuclear fuel and waste created by extracting uranium from spent fuel from the state’s list of high level nuclear waste materials.
Under the new law, introduced in November after a broader repeal of the reactor ban failed over the summer, Illinois’ Environmental Protection Agency must adopt rules for the construction of small modular reactors by Jan. 1, according to the text of the bill.
This summer, Pritzker vetoed a bill that would have completely lifted Illinois’ 1987 ban on construction of new reactors. The ban was in part a response to the lack of a national repository for spent nuclear fuel.
There is still no permanent U.S. repository for spent nuclear fuel.
