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State lawmakers have identified developing nuclear energy as a priority ahead of the start of the legislative session Wednesday.
As part of his economic development plan, Gov. Patrick Morrisey wants to increase the state’s energy capacity to 50 gigawatts by 2050 by harnessing coal, gas and nuclear.
Nicholas Preservati, Director of the West Virginia Office of Energy, told lawmakers during a Monday morning meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary that public perception will be one of the biggest hurdles to what could be a major economic boon.
“When we’ve talked to other states, we’ve spoken to industry experts, the single most important factor that we are told is community engagement, and it needs to be started yesterday,” he said. “They said, before you start passing legislation, before you start building sites, before you start going out and doing all these other aspects, you need to start educating the public now.”
Preservati acknowledged that nuclear power faces an uphill battle in part because of the effects on the state’s coal industry as well as longstanding public concerns over the safety of radioactive materials.
A bill on nuclear reactor oversight in the state prompted lengthy debate in the House of Delegates last year and ultimately did not pass. On paper, House Bill 2205 was a fairly simple bill: it clarified that the construction and operation of small nuclear reactors for electric power generation in the state falls under the jurisdiction of the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
But Del. Henry C. Dillon, R-Wayne, was not alone when he stood to oppose the bill, asking if nuclear power would lead to the decarbonization of the electrical grid.
Del. James Akers, R-Kanawha, co-chair of the committee, likened the importance of public perception on nuclear to data centers. He said some negative public sentiment around data centers has been in part because of a lack of effort on the legislature’s part after the passage of House Bill 2014 last session.
“If there are people who think a data center, which I’ve said this before publicly, Virginia has over 500 data centers, and I’ve said that if a data center is going to destroy the environment, Virginia would have been gone already,” Akers said. “So I’m confident we can do those responsibly, but if we have members of the public who are afraid of data centers, I can only imagine what’s going to happen if we tell them we’re going to build a nuclear power plant if they don’t hear about it ahead of time.”
Preservati told the committee a nuclear power plant could create as many as 4,500 construction jobs and 600 full time jobs. He said the power, as well as the heat, from a nuclear plant would be attractive to several industries that would want to invest in West Virginia after a plant was built.
However, he did warn that at a minimum a plant would cost at least $4 billion dollars to build and take at least five years’ time. He said for West Virginia to be competitive, policy, regulation and building sites needed to be prepared as soon as possible.
“President Trump issued an executive order last year to prioritize advanced nuclear energy across the country,” Preservati said. “So there will be states who, if they also prioritize this, are going to be the winners on this matter, and in the states that aren’t ready for it, are going to be left out in the cold. Of course, in West Virginia, we refer to ourselves as an ‘all the above’ energy state. We want to be pro-coal, pro-gas, and I believe we should also be pro-nuclear.”