After it stalled in the Senate last year, Iowa legislators are giving a second look to a bill that would help MidAmerican Energy build a new nuclear plant in the state.In recent years, MidAmerican Energy has studied the feasibility of building a new plant, potentially including small modular reactors. MidAmerican is one of 11 utilities on the customer advisory board of NuScale Power, which is in the process of submitting a 45 megawatt reactor design to federal regulators.Last year the Iowa House approved a bill that would allow MidAmerican to collect money from ratepayers for a nuclear plant in advance of its completion. Following cost overruns and abandoned reactor projects in the late 1970s and 1980s, many states prohibited utilities from raising capital from ratepayers for nuclear plants before they come online. In its latest iteration, the Iowa bill would give the state’s utilities board more oversight of a proposed nuclear plant’s costs and feasibility.The legislation has been moving through the Senate committee process, and the Sioux City Journal reported the Senate Commerce Committee was scheduled to vote on it today.
MidAmerica...the way to get started is in two present-day technologies.
Iowa, the tall-corn State, needs one of these. All in one control room
That will, eventually, include an SMR... A master plan...
Vern Cornell...San Diego