By Kelly Lundeen
The pendulum has come full swing in the ten short years since the dairy state went from guarding against further radioactive waste production to actively promoting nuclear power with taxpayer money. Between 1983 and 2016 Wisconsin was shielded from any new commercial nuclear reactors by a moratorium against reactor construction. Without the moratorium the red carpet has been laid down for a nuclear industry gala. The year 2025 saw state approval of pro-nuclear legislation and the first application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a small modular nuclear reactor, not to mention a license extension for the state’s only operating nuclear power facility (see “Wisconsin Reactors Approved to Run Til 80” on p.6).
Over the last five years Wisconsin has seen proposals for small modular nuclear reactors (SMNR) come, go, and pop up again. In 2021 Wisconsin-based Dairyland Electric Cooperative signed an agreement with NuScale Power to explore the potential deployment of NuScale’s so-called “advanced” reactor design. A similar proposal failed in Idaho when projected costs doubled and local stakeholders called off the deal. Policy director of Columbia Riverkeeper Kelly Campbell commented, “After losing their customer, NuScale’s stock plunged, it laid off nearly a third of its workforce, and it was sued by its investors and investigated for investor fraud. Then its CEO sold off most of his stock shares.” Even though the Wisconsin Dairyland-NuScale agreement has yet to be formally rescinded, the plan has faded away.
Other optimistic SMNR developers apparently don’t expect the same failure. Along the Lake Michigan shoreline sits the Kewaunee Power Station, Wisconsin’s most recently shuttered nuclear reactor. It closed in 2013 and is now undergoing decommissioning. A new plan could see a return to production of radioactive waste on Kewaunee grounds, along with a little electricity, potentially to be gobbled up by an adjacent data center. A SMNR has been proposed at the site after its owner EnergySolutions signed an agreement with the Canadian company Terrestrial Energy in December 2024 to explore deployment of its Integral Molten Salt nuclear reactor design. Molten salt explodes when exposed to air and reactors cooled with it have all failed. In April 2025, EnergySolutions submitted an early site permit to the NRC for a SMNR in partnership with WEC Group, parent company of WE Energies. The earliest projections for producing a bit of electricity are for 2038.
The future of incredibly expensive nuclear power depends on enormous government taxpayer handouts. Wisconsin’s legislature and governor have put bipartisan support behind this corporate welfare. Last summer the state approved “two bills to advance the state’s nuclear energy innovation by requiring a study of nuclear energy opportunities and potential nuclear power and fusion sites in Wisconsin and creating a Nuclear Power Summit Board designed to help advance nuclear power… and showcase Wisconsin’s leadership in the nuclear industry,” according to a press release from the office of Democratic governor Tony Evers. That means more subsidies to create a supply of unnecessary energy that will arrive to the market too expensive and too late when alternatives to fossil fuels are needed now.
The nuclear moratorium was a protection from the onslaught of radioactive threats facing the state today. Without a moratorium, states across the country like Wisconsin are left fighting on multiple fronts. Currently under review in the state legislature is a bill that would funnel taxpayer funds into building a new nuclear reactor. This kind of taxpayer bailout for the nuclear industry would have been impossible in Wisconsin a decade ago.
— WMTV15, Oct. 15; Wisconsin Public Radio, May 14; EnergySolutions, May 13, 2025; Oregon Capital Chronicle, Oct. 29, 2024
