Kehoe, others voice urgent support for new nuclear power in Missouri

COLUMBIA — Gov. Mike Kehoe and other prominent figures in state political, energy and business circles voiced enthusiasm this week for building new nuclear power generation, at a state-led event called the Missouri Nuclear Summit.

Kehoe, a Republican, expressed an eagerness to quickly pursue more of the power source — something he recalled unsuccessfully pushing for as a freshman legislator in Jefferson City, more than a decade ago.

“We need to move at business speed, not bureaucratic speed,” said Kehoe, in a speech at the conference. “It’s a priority of mine to make sure Missouri has ample power for the future. And we know nuclear technology can be a critical piece in meeting that goal.”

Around 500 people registered to attend the meeting, including a range of state-level politicians and regulators, industry advocates and representatives, personnel from utility companies interested in nuclear power, and federal officials from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Despite some significant concerns about matters like the cost of nuclear development — which can spiral into the tens of billions of dollars for a single, large-scale plant — the tone at the summit was overwhelmingly one of interest, supportiveness and urgency.

Besides thrice mentioning fictional nuclear industry employee Homer Simpson, speakers at the event gave context about renewed national interest in the energy source — especially amid electricity demand from power-intensive industrial users like data centers — and acknowledged some challenges, from public attitudes about nuclear power to its costs.

But some speakers downplayed the significant upfront costs that can accompany new nuclear projects and argued that price tags would be reduced as more projects are built, after the recent end of a nationwide, three-decade pause in nuclear plant construction.

That period of inactivity finally concluded in 2023, when a plant in Georgia began running seven years later than scheduled and $17 billion over budget — with total costs exceeding $30 billion.

Around the country, there’s growing interest in other nuclear projects, including the potential to use new technologies in smaller reactors.

Some mothballed nuclear reactors are even being put back into service, in places like Michigan.

Currently, Missouri has just one nuclear power plant, run by Ameren in Callaway County.

Ameren, the St. Louis-based power utility, announced earlier this year that it wants to build new nuclear generation for the first time since the 1980s, and attended the summit to “learn and listen” as it weighs its options, said Mark Birk, the chairman and president of Ameren Missouri.

A key goal for the company, Birk said during a break, is “understanding the risks and the benefits that are associated with each technology, and then ultimately making the right decision for our customers.”

He said that Ameren wants to patiently monitor the development of nuclear projects by other utilities and let related technologies mature, by the time it aims to welcome more of the power source in the 2040s.

“We don’t want to be the first to go,” said Birk.

Ameren representatives were among those sticking around for the second day of the summit on Friday — a non-public portion of the event, focused on more granular and technical details about nuclear development.

Officials from both Ameren and state government said that recent policy changes put nuclear generation newly in reach, such as a controversial bill signed this year by Kehoe that allows utilities to charge customers for projects before they are finished and producing power.

“Because you’ve got a 10- to 15-year cycle of what it takes to build a nuclear plant, no investor-owned utility can borrow that kind of money, carry it for 10, 12, 15 years without income from it, and survive,” said Kurt Schaefer, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which hosted the event.

He also said additional policy changes might further assist nuclear development, particularly for plants that seek to use previously approved technologies.

“I think you’re going to see states asking the federal government to accelerate some of that review process, because it really should not take as long as it does,” said Schaefer.