‘Nuclear in my backyard?’ America, and the market, seems OK with it

Van Buren County is a rural orbit in the southwest of Michigan, a quiet corner of a swing state. Pillow soft sand hills slide and shape along the shores of Lake Michigan. And the district seat – the claw claw – takes its name from a perfect medium western fruit.

“It is a beautiful natural environment with magnificent sand hills that you haven’t seen in other parts of the world,” says Daywi Cook, who has been living in this area for five generations. “Many people like to live here because of loneliness.”

The secret Township seems to believe it as the pioneer of a potential nuclear transformation. Van Buren District Town has been hosting Palisades nuclear facility since 1971. The aging facility was removed from the service in 2022, but within the scope of the Biden administration’s inflation reduction law, it is put into service in the first installment provided by the Federal Government this year with a loan of over $ 1 billion. In addition to the re -activation of the facility, the region is expected to contain the country’s first small modular reactors (SMRs).

Small modular reactors are nuclear power plants built in the factory, which is much smaller than traditional reactors (typically 300 megawatt or less). SMRs are usually designed to be produced and sent to sites for faster, less costly installation.

The future of energy in the United States may occur in this humble corner of Michigan, where Holtec Corporation built two SMR-300 units to be placed with the existing 800 Megawatt Palisades facilities. SMRs are planned to be operational in the early 2030s.

District supervisor Cook, “There are still some unknowns, but Holtec invites us to talk.” He said. He said that the region is familiar with nuclear energy and the security record of the facility has come a long way to accept the inhabitants of the district.

Holtec did not respond to the request for comments.

Cook, the recommended old facility is hoping and SMRs will give the district to a large extent that some economic stability is directed by seasonal emissions.

“Chicago is known as Chicago Catskills. “It would be nice to have stability throughout the year, Cook Cook added Cook.

Zach Morris, General Manager of Market One, a local business and government leaders union that encourages economic growth in Michigan, Cass and Van Buren districts, says the region is uniquely positioned as a pioneer of the nuclear Renaissance of the region. Due to the existing plant, nuclear information is ready and has the power to gain strength in the labor force and the area.

Morris said that the recommended former nuclear power plant would employ 600 people and that two SMR will employ 300 people with an average salaries of $ 107,000. “This year, a payroll of $ 32 million in this year, this is the grocery store, restaurants and non -snow -free donations causes significant money to spend.” He said. And with the nuclear history of the region, there has been little opposition to the arrival of the SMRs, which has been used for a while in submarines and aircraft carriers for years. “This is not a new technology, but it has not been needed so far.” He said.

A Holtec SMR will provide enough power for 300,000 houses or a data centers or two data centers, and will make a request.

“We have a national issue, a national crisis that we did not expect five years ago.” He said. “Nobody saw it five years ago. The collective genius did not predict it,” he said without enough power to give up online data centers and AI, flow services or cameras. “This means that we need to adapt to the crisis. SMRs will come.” He said.

Morris Keskin offers a comparison to show how much the world of energy production has risen in a short time. “We were worried about how to endure the demand from 20 Megawatt marijuana farm five years ago,” he said and referred to a planned cannabis operation and said, “This is some of what data centers want.”

Big Teh’s role in nuclear return

People use AI, from defining animal traces in their backyard to analyzing 10 -year sales data for corporate reports. And this torrent of these demands for artificial intelligence leads to a demand for the complex calculation required for the instant answers of the data centers. And Tech Titans, the demand for data centers built by Google, Amazon and others led to electricity demand.

While the industry is working on smaller, scalable nuclear solutions, Big Tech removes old plants out of service from pigeons. In 2028, Constellation Energy plans to restart the 835 MW Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear production station in Pennsylvania, and Microsoft agrees to buy electricity from the re -enabled power plant to provide power to its data centers. And Google has recently made an agreement with Kairos Power and TVA for a new nuclear power plant.

Bill Gates invested 1 billion dollars in the technology that built a new generation of nuclear power plants in Wyoming and invested $ 1 billion in the technology. Gate’s company has also announced its plans to explore building a nuclear facility in Kansas.

“Both fission and fusion are the basic technologies for humanity to strengthen everything we do. This week Power Magazine.

OkloOpenai’s Sam Altman helped to open up to the public before he stepped back his role in April, on nuclear potential, without revenue or power purchasing agreements, he continues to be a high -speculative public stock market game and is far from commercial operations for at least a few years. However, his shares exploded since 2024 public offering.

Insurance sector rates are low

Most of the industry excitement surround SMRs and commercial distribution.

Energy and Power Vice President Everett Hansen, Marsh, a leading insurance broker who helps enterprises to manage the risk and safe scope, sees a nuclear, SMR or an old system, as a safe bet.

“Nuclear power plants are probably best designed, Han Hansen said, comparing other power supplies. “Their designs are incredibly comprehensive and detailed,” he added.

Hansen says some of the design process is comprehensive loss modeling and injured analysis. The wounded in the industry refers to a “event” and a wounded in the analysis can be something very severe.

Hansen says it is to think on the worst day of people’s reaction when it comes to nuclear. Think of Chernobyl, Fukushima or Three Mile Island. But the nuclear has come a long way.

Hansen, “They are working very well. Nuclear power plant is unknown or not careful.” He said. Hansen, “physical hazards, financial risks, strategy risks, all commercial roads can be applicable to the financial contribution,” he said. He said.

There is a charges of distributing SMRs, but Hansen thinks it will be overcome.

“The construction of assets is very expensive to build assets, and SMRs are trying to reach this problem by reducing Capex. However, the risk of nature is economic.” He said. While developers move according to their business model scaling plans, costs should decrease over time after the first structures.

“We will all be surprised at what has changed after a year or a few years. There will be a change and there will be things.”

Different opinions in the timeline of the 2030s for widespread distribution

Nevertheless, views on how ready the SMRs are for prime time change.

Whit Johnson, a SALT Lake City -based partner, who consulted a technology customers’ portfolio of Foley & LARDNER LLP, has been acknowledged that the ghost of nuclear disasters has been stored, but since then Industry has seen many changes since then.

“Nuclear energy is not what Chernobyl melting creates fear for many people about nuclear energy about 40 years ago. Technology has come a long, long way.” He said. “Nevertheless, there is a permanent stigma in public perception, but it may have been time to create an opportunity for society to rethink the nuclear nuclear,” Johnson said. He said.

“Although the SMRs clearly offer potential, their applicability is not largely based on operational evidence, not on operational evidence,” Gilbert Michaud, the coordinator of the “climate and energy” focus of the school “Climate and Energy” at the University of Loyola University Chicago. He said.

Hansen said that the US regulators were another reason to rely on nuclear revival, while Michaud said that the current regulatory framework has not yet caught the planned deployment of SMRs. “The regulatory frame for the nuclear is based on large reactors and continues to adapt to the rules for SMRs.” He said.

Michaud, before the widespread deployment of SMRs, said that more planning and preparation protocol was needed. “It requires better emergency preparation and better public safety with the use of fuel use and storage and cyber threats to distribute them in populated areas or nearby, better tests and better data.

This causes him to believe that the widespread deployment of SMRs will last longer than the most optimistic estimates.

“I don’t think SMRs will be so common in the next 5-10 years. Although it is a clear potential, there are still great regulatory, cost, timeline and community acceptance difficulties. Widespread commercial presentation may be slow.” He said.

Even until the 2030s, SMRs are likely to be pilot projects in industrial areas, and according to Michaud, it is not stuck to a lane shopping center or subsection by protecting a sufficient supply chain between costs, financing difficulties and basic obstacles.

“SMRs are newer and have seen major costs and delays. They are not proven on a scale, projects are likely to exceed the budget, and these dollars may have been invested in proven technologies such as wind, sun and storage. This provides risks for energy developers, public services and even wages.”

A SMR planned in Idaho last year Canceled due to many factors, including cost extensions.

According to the regulatory file by Holtec, the Palisades facility in Michigan needs great repairs to safely start re -start.

However, the public is changing. A Pew Survey Since last August, the majority of Americans (56%) found more nuclear energy for electricity production. This year has not changed to year, and Pew said that Americans are more likely to choose expanding solar energy and wind power. However, since more Republican supports nuclear energy, PEW, according to Pew, has increased public support for nuclear than 43% ten years ago, and in recent years, general support for solar and wind energy has decreased.

In Covert Township, Cook thinks that the future is nuclear, and for the time being, the focal point will first run the old factory again and then people will pay more attention to SMRs.

“You will get more skepticism with SMRs because there will be a new technology and questions.” He said.