The Illinois legislature this week approved legislation that would, if signed, allow for construction of small modular reactors in the state beginning in 2026.
Also under the legislation, spent nuclear fuel and waste resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel would no longer be considered high level nuclear waste under Illinois law.
The Illinois House of Representatives approved the legislation on Thursday, the last scheduled day of the General Assembly’s fall session. The state Senate approved it on Wednesday.
If signed by Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker’s (D), HB2473 would require the state Environmental Protection Agency to adopt rules for the construction of small modular reactors by Jan. 1, according to the text of the bill.
Pritzker this summer vetoed a bill that would have lifted the state’s 36 year-old ban on new plant construction not only for small modular reactors but for all types of reactors. An effort to override the veto of that bill, SB0076, failed in the Illinois Senate on Wednesday.
Illinois banned construction of new nuclear reactors in 1987, in part because there was no permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel in the U.S.
There is still no permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel in the U.S.
