Nuclear

Is Texas ready for advanced nuclear? Governor Abbott thinks so

In August 2023, Gov. Abbott directed Texas regulators to form a working group to study and plan for the use of advanced nuclear reactors in the state. That report is now ready.
Is Texas ready for advanced nuclear? Governor Abbott thinks so
Xe-100 Nuclear Power Plant Rendering (Source: X-energy).

Governor Greg Abbott and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) announced the release of the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group’s final report on Texas’ plan to build up its advanced nuclear power industry.

In August 2023, Governor Abbott directed the PUCT to form a working group to study and plan for the use of advanced nuclear reactors in Texas. Over the past year, the working group has developed recommendations and strategies mean to help achieve this goal. Abbott instructed the PUCT to improve understanding the states role in deploying and using reactors; consider potential financial incentives; determine nuclear-specific changed needed in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market; identify regulatory impediments to development; and identify how the state can streamline and accelerate permitting for the building of advanced nuclear reactors in the state.

Now, the report is ready after roughly 50,000 hours of work.

The working group argues that Texas has “all the resources necessary to lead” in advanced nuclear, the workforce to support large construction and manufacturing projects, the funding for investment, and 61 existing sites that the group said were evaluated and ready for potential use.

Additionally, the working group broke down the main benefits it sees advanced nuclear bringing to Texas. First, the working group argues that advanced nuclear will support the state’s growing energy needs by providing clean power for power-hungry customers like industrial facilities, data centers, military bases, and more.

“Texas is the energy capital of the world, and we are ready to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power,” said Governor Abbott. “By utilizing advanced nuclear energy, Texas will enhance the reliability of the state grid and provide affordable, dispatchable power to Texans across the state.”

Advanced nuclear can be co-located with data centers or heavy industrial sites, the working group added, which could provide process heat, power desalination plants and electrify oil fields. The group cited a Bureau of Business Research (BBR) report that says a moderate small modular reactor (SMR) deployment by 2055 could result in an annual average of 148,000 people employed directly and indirectly in the SMR industry; over $50 billion in new economic output in Texas; and over $27 billion in income for Texas workers.

The working group also maintains that nuclear power is more reliable than coal, wind and solar, which could help improve resilience during extreme weather conditions. The report’s list of benefits concludes with the notion that Texas could “lead the national competition” in advanced nuclear, and with the global nuclear market projected to triple by 2050, “establishing Texas as the preferred supplier for U.S.-based advanced nuclear reactor technology will open international opportunities and offer an alternative to Chinese and Russian nuclear reactor technology for allies and partners.”

Abbott originally issued the directive to the PUCT while highlighting the role of nuclear energy during a discussion with Dow and X-Energy at the University of Texas at Austin. In May 2023, Dow announced its UCC1 Seadrift Operations manufacturing site in Texas as the location of an X-Energy small modular reactor (SMR) project.

Also in recent Texas nuclear news, Texas A&M University System officials have taken the first steps to provide testing sites for next-generation nuclear reactors on land it owns, projecting that it will become the only higher education institution with a commercial reactor site license. The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents agreed to notify regulators at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it has potential sites available at Texas A&M-RELLIS in Bryan for multiple companies to test and construct the next generation of nuclear reactors.

The test bed for the reactors will support multiple reactors from various companies, said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M System, and the reactors at the site also could put additional power into the state’s energy grid at a time of high demand.

The submission of the letter of intent to the regulators marks the beginning of a licensing process for the A&M System. The Texas A&M System recently concluded the process of gathering proposals from nuclear reactor companies that hope to construct reactors at Texas A&M-RELLIS. Negotiations are expected to begin soon, the Texas A&M System said. After negotiations are complete, the A&M System will announce which companies will conduct testing and other work at Texas A&M-RELLIS.