DENVER — On Monday, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill declaring nuclear energy a clean energy source in Colorado.
According to the bill, the state is estimating peak demand for electricity will double in the next five years.
"Providing more options for generating electricity in Colorado will lead to a less expensive and a more reliable path to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions," the now-law states.
Right now, Colorado has no operating nuclear power plants. However, new designs are being developed across the country and could be ready in the next decade, according to the new law.
"The development of a small modular reactor can create up to 900 jobs lasting up to 4 years, as well as up to 300 permanent jobs," according to the law.
In a statement to Denver7 from the governor's office he broke down what the signing of this bill means.
“The Governor was excited to sign this bipartisan bill that passed with significant votes in both chambers to continue on our progress toward all solutions to meet our clean energy goals. To be clear, this bill does not move forward any particular nuclear energy project in Colorado, nor have any been proposed as part of resource planning by any utility. With this new law, and if nuclear energy becomes sufficiently cost-competitive, it could potentially become part of Colorado’s clean energy future. However, it must be conducted safely, without harming communities, depleting other natural resources, or replacing other clean energy sources. While this bipartisan law demonstrates the Colorado legislature’s commitment to exploring nuclear energy, it in no way takes away the multiple layers of state and federal oversight of these initiatives.”
Michael Bowers, with the American Institute of Professional Geologists Legislative Regulatory Office, said it could take more than a decade to get to the point of construction.
"I think over time, the regulations in play for construction of nuclear facilities is such that, you know, there's a lot of environmental impacts and other forms of due diligence that needs to be put in before they can get the reactor even started on the construction phase," Bowers said.
He supports the governor's decision to sign the bill.
Bowers said nuclear energy uses less water now than it used to, it's more efficient, and it's carbon free.
"I think that this just enables it to be put into a category where, if there are additional grants for clean energy that come through, then some of these larger commercial builders, or, you know, large tech companies or whoever is going to be meeting this kind of infrastructure are going to be able to take advantage of those possible financial benefits from grants," Bowers said.
Executive Director of 350 Colorado Micah Parkin disagrees, calling it one of the most expensive energy sources and dangerous.
"It still produces radioactive waste, which is dangerous to humans and other living things for 1000s of years, and so that's one of the main reasons we believe it should not have been considered a clean energy source," Parkin said. "That radioactive waste, there's still no viable disposal method for it. It has to be stored on site, and that makes our communities that live near potential nuclear energy sites very vulnerable to spills, leaks."
Parkin said there's no proposal on the table yet for what communities will see the construction for the reactors.
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