Nuclear power gets another look, but hesitation is real

LOWELL — Nuclear power is undergoing a “transition,” a regional energy expert said, as New England looks anew to the technology to meet rising electricity demand.

The shift was on display Wednesday at UMass Lowell, where energy officials, researchers and industry representatives from across the six-state region gathered to explore advanced reactors, fusion and the practical hurdles to bringing new nuclear capacity online.

Outside, protesters carried signs opposing nuclear power and a truck circled the building carrying a “mock nuclear waste cask,” underscoring the enduring divide over nuclear energy.

Sukesh Aghara, a professor and associate dean at UMass Lowell, described the shift: “What we are seeing is more than simply a renewed interest in nuclear. It is a nuclear transition.”

The technologies are changing, he said, as are the regulatory framework, the companies entering the sector and the way states think about nuclear sites. Small modular reactors, microreactors and fusion are being developed alongside the large conventional reactors that have dominated the industry for decades.

ISO New England forecasts a 9% increase in annual electricity consumption, Aghara said, with particular concern about winter peak demand through 2035.

“Nuclear is already part of this region’s ecosystem,” he said.

The region’s existing nuclear plants at Millstone in Connecticut and Seabrook in New Hampshire supply roughly a quarter of New England’s electricity, according to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

During opening remarks to the day-long conference, Massachusetts EEA Secretary Rebecca Tepper said, “We shouldn’t take resources off the table before we fully understand them.”

Renewed urgency

The renewed interest is also emerging from a shortage of obvious alternatives.

Five of six New England states have ambitious decarbonization requirements, but electricity demand is rising for the first time in decades, said Connecticut Acting Commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Emma Cimino.

Offshore wind has faced delays and economic challenges, while efforts to expand natural gas infrastructure have struggled to gain traction.

“We’ve turned over a lot of rocks without finding much underneath them,” Cimino said.

She said the region’s difficulties expanding natural gas capacity have consequences beyond the electric grid, constraining economic development and the region’s ability to attract new businesses and residents.

“It feels like there’s a real moment to look to a new technology,” she said.

Voters must OK new nukes

In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey’s administration has pursued policies aimed at opening Massachusetts to newer nuclear technologies. An energy bill she filed last year would repeal Chapter 503, a voter-approved 1982 law that requires statewide voter approval before a new nuclear power plant can be built in Massachusetts.

In the preamble of her energy legislation, Healey said repealing the law would eliminate “a major barrier to the consideration of new small modular reactors that could improve reliability, stabilize prices, and decarbonize the region’s power grid.”

The administration also announced last year it was teaming up with UMass Lowell on an advanced nuclear and fusion roadmap, saying it would help Massachusetts “leverage our strengths to lower costs and grow these industries.”

Marie Louise “Weezie” Nuara, Massachusetts’ deputy secretary for federal and regional affairs, said the state’s advanced nuclear and fusion roadmap is not a plan to build a reactor.

“This roadmap effort is not about identifying potential sites,” Nuara said. “It’s not about picking a reactor technology, and it’s not about making a decision to deploy new nuclear.”

Instead, she said, the state is trying to establish what it would need to know before making those decisions — from workforce and education needs to regulation, regional coordination, community engagement and public understanding.

UMass Lowell held introductory webinars late last year and then conducted a series of sector-specific stakeholder sessions in January.

A survey done for the study showed 91% stakeholders surveyed said they need more credible, trust-based information about advanced nuclear before they can meaningfully discuss its role in the region’s energy future, Nuara said.

“We are really just at the beginning,” she said.

Small reactors

The enthusiasm for small modular reactors met some skepticism from David Parsons, an MIT professor, who cautioned that shrinking the size of a reactor does not necessarily solve the larger problems of construction, financing and project management. And while Massachusetts has become a center of fusion research and development, he said fusion cannot address the region’s immediate electricity needs.

“It’s wonderful that Massachusetts has the first demonstration project of a fusion plant being built, but that’s not putting electrons on the grid tomorrow,” Parsons said.

Still, the prospect of new nuclear is gaining attention across the region.

In New Hampshire, Director of Energy Innovation Thomas Barrasso said Gov. Kelly Ayotte got the largest standing ovation of her State of the State address when she announced the state would explore advanced nuclear.

The governor subsequently issued an executive order directing the state to explore how advanced nuclear could be tracked, developed and deployed.

But Barrasso said New Hampshire, like other states, does not want to be the pioneer.

“We do not want to be the first of a kind,” he said. “We want to be the end of a kind.”

Parsons said that hesitation is understandable but could become a problem if every state waits for another to absorb the risks of building new nuclear facilities.

“Everybody wants, as my colleague said, to be the fifth one to build after other people take the risks on the first ones,” Parsons said.

Outside the summit, opponents of the repeal and of nuclear power generally gathered to make clear that the decades-old debate has not disappeared.

Protesters from the Commonwealth Coalition for Democracy and Safe Energy held signs warning about radioactive waste and health risks and urging Healey not to “trash Democracy for an unproven technology.” A Citizens Awareness Network truck circled the block carrying a large model of a nuclear waste cask.

Susanae Glowacki of Greenfield, who said she has been involved in opposition to nuclear power since the 1970s, said the renewed push reflects political pressure to show that Massachusetts is considering every possible energy source.

“I think it’s just a political strategy for the governor,” Glowacki said.