Indiana signed an agreement Monday with the goal of bringing six gigawatts of nuclear energy to the grid.
Gov. Mike Braun signed a memorandum of understanding with a Canadian-based engineering company, AtkinsRéalis.
Ian Edwards is the President and CEO of the Company. At the signing of the memorandum of understanding, he called the agreement a 100-year relationship.
“So it's really important that we hit those relationships off at the start in the right way, and we're certainly committed to doing that,” he said.
Indiana currently produces roughly 27 gigawatts of electricity, according to an Indiana Office of Energy Development report. Braun said bringing six more gigawatts to the grid is important given growing energy demands.
But there’s no explicit timeline for meeting that goal.
"This is just a commitment that they're going to work towards those six gigawatts,” he told reporters. “And remember, that's 30% of what we currently produce in the state.”
State officials say they want to be at the leading edge of nuclear energy development.
"We're not going to be the only state wanting to do this. I just hope to be the first state and the fastest-paced,” Braun said.
The desire to increase nuclear energy development is driven in part by the high energy demands expected from data centers.
Indiana has already begun making an effort to build interest in becoming the site of nuclear power generation. Earlier this year, the state launched a program to identify communities open to hosting nuclear power - to reduce risks for developers worried about community pushback to nuclear projects.
In September, the federal government announced plans to place a nuclear reactor at Naval Weapons Station Crane in southwestern Indiana by 2028. It would be the state’s first nuclear-producing microreactor.
Braun said getting that microreactor in place is the first goal, followed by developing small modular reactors (SMRs) in the state. SMRs are more powerful than the microreactor being placed at Crane.
But reporters noted that nuclear power is unlikely to come online before some of the energy demands from data centers.
Braun said things like natural gas will have to serve as a bridge.
“We're blessed with a lot of pipelines through the state,” he said. “Coal's the only thing we've got until we've become the leader on advanced nuclear technology, and those [coal plants] are being extended, but there probably won't be a technology where you can use it without the greenhouse gas question.”
Braun’s announcement was made at the Global Nuclear Energy Economic Summit, hosted by Purdue University. The school recently appointed Seungjin Kim as the school’s new Chief Nuclear Officer.
Kim noted that so far small modular reactors have not been deployed anywhere in the U.S. Some critics have argued that whether the technology can be affordably deployed has not yet been proven.
“I expect that you will soon hear from the news that there will be a SMR deployment,” Kim said. “Maybe not in Indiana for now, but you know there are other states already moving forward with that deployment.”
Contact Government Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org
