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Nuclear Energy

Issue

Should Minnesota repeal policies that make it extremely difficult to update, expand and otherwise improve existing nuclear plants and that ban new nuclear plants from being built?

Policy

  • Remove the outdated ban on issuing a Certificate of Need for a new nuclear power facility.
  • The Minnesota Legislature should address the question of long-term storage of waste as best it can, but should not wait for Congress to resolve the issue before removing the ban on new generation.
    • The Legislature also should make recycling of spent nuclear fuel legal in Minnesota. While an act of Congress is likely necessary to provide the proper legal incentive to adopt spent fuel recycling, states can lead by making the practice officially legal.
    • When it removes the ban on new nuclear generation, the Legislature also should pass a resolution urging Congress to fully fund the development of a long-term waste storage facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, and encourage a national nuclear waste recycling program.
  • Remove the requirement for legislative oversight for Certificates of Need related to additional storage of spent nuclear fuel.
  • Fund the Renewable Development Fund (RDF) directly from the general fund, instead of linking the RDF’s funding to spent nuclear fuel storage.

Business Impact

Minnesota’s business and residential customers’ electricity needs are steadily growing. Even taking into consideration new laws increasing conservation targets and mandating major investments in renewable energy, and assuming these efforts are successful, the need for additional “base-load” electricity (generated by plants that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week) is likely to occur within the next decade. Until a statewide carbon emissions plan is enacted, new fossil-fuel based resources face an uncertain future to help meet that need.

Minnesota is one of the only states in the country that has adopted a state policy banning new nuclear energy. This effectively limits new base-load resource options to fossil-based generation and exposing customers to an expensive, volatile regional market. Eliminating Minnesota’s outdated nuclear ban would give customers a clean, safe, reliable option to fill the eventual need for new power with a technology that doesn’t contribute to global climate change.

Any serious attempt by the Legislature to address Minnesota’s contribution to climate change must include the possibility of new nuclear generation into our base-load energy profile. Without this option, meeting the goal of 80-percent reduction by 2050 will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

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