Gov. Braun signs nuclear bill consumer advocates say increases ratepayer risk

Gov. Mike Braun signed a bill into law that enables public utilities to petition state regulators to recover costs for developing small module nuclear reactors, a policy that consumer advocates say will put the financial risk on Hoosiers.

The law, Senate Enrolled Act 424, allows the state’s monopoly, investor-owned utilities to recover the costs of developing these small reactors from rate payers before receiving a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which is typically required before construction begins.

Braun did not respond to IndyStar’s request for comment.

Months before signing the bill into law, Braun told WTHI-TV10 in February that he would hesitate to put these costs on rate payers.

“Some of that (the utilities) have to absorb through what’s called capitalism,” he told the TV news station. “You know they’re out there as investor owned. Some of that’s going to have to be risk that they take.”

Kerwin Olson, executive director at Citizens Action Coalition, said the law makes the rhetoric around energy affordability sort of a joke and shifts 100% of the risk to customers.

“I fail to recognize how forcing customers to pay for project development costs for something that doesn’t exist is somehow addressing affordability,” Olson said. “It’s really egregious, (Senate Bill) 424 does nothing to address affordability problems and in fact exacerbates them.”

The bill was one of three with nearly identical language to shift the cost of building SMRs to customers. Senate Bill 423 would establish a smaller pilot project for SMRs and currently is stalled in the House, and House Bill 1007 had the exact language of SEA 424, but that language was removed from the legislation after Braun signed the 424 into law.

Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, introduce SEA 424 saying the bill is important to incentivize SMRs

The U.S. currently has no operating SMRs, and only a handful are fully operable in the world.

Building an SMR from the ground up could take at least 10 years, a nuclear industry advocate told lawmakers earlier this year. That means customers could be paying for development costs long before the utility is able to provide power from the site.

Initial report: Indiana’s nuclear power legislation places costs on customers, advocates say

IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social