Texas, Where Energy Is the Name of the Game, Goes Big (and Small) on Nuclear

Guest Post by Duggan Flanakin.

Is everything bigger in Texas?

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp last week announced that his university has surpassed even the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now has the nation’s largest nuclear engineering research department.

And just in time, because Sharp also announced that Texas A&M is offering land near its RELLIS Innovation and Technology campus, located on 2,400 acres in Bryan, Texas, to several nuclear reactor companies to build small modular reactors (SMRs).

“Plain and simple,” said Sharp, a former State Comptroller and former member of the Texas Railroad Commission, “the United States needs more power. And nowhere in the country, other than Texas, is anyone willing to step up and build the power plants we need.”

Chief executive officers from Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Terrestrial Energy, and Aalo Atomics have all agreed to work with the Texas A&M system to bring reactors to the RELLIS campus as part of a project dubbed “The Energy Proving Ground.”

Their common goal is to work toward building and testing commercial-ready technologies that within five years can bring more nuclear energy to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT, which manages the Texas grid) and eventually to an energy-hungry nation.

According to Sharp, the RELLIS campus is the first suitable location in the nation where reactor manufacturers and power-dependent companies in Big Tech can build clusters of small modular reactors to supply the power needed for artificial intelligence endeavors, data centers, and the electric grid.

The Texas A&M System is ready to do what is necessary for the country to thrive, Sharp added, thanks to the leadership of Governor Greg Abbott and others in Texas state government. Doubtless, the “Energy Proving Ground” project will also redirect top talent to the university.

Last November, Gov. Abbott announced the release of the final report of the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group. Just days later, he proclaimed that, “Texas is the energy capital of the world, and we’re ready to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power.”

The Working Group, created by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) at Abbott’s direction, had been tasked with evaluating the state’s plan to build “a world-leading advanced nuclear power industry to enhance electric reliability and energy security, promote economic development, and unleash new opportunities for the growing Texas workforce.”

The Working Group report said that advanced nuclear reactors will provide enhanced energy security by augmenting Texas electricity generation. Nuclear energy will provide power for urban centers, ports, oil and gas regions, industrial facilities, data centers, and military bases. Nuclear also improves ERCOT’s reliability, as nuclear is more reliable than coal, wind, or solar.

Because advanced SMRs can co-locate with data centers and support heavy industries, they can help create new, good-paying jobs, increase productivity, and bring revenues to households and the state treasury as they provide process heat, power desalination plants, and electrify oilfields.

A Bureau of Better Business report says that by 2055, deployment of SMRs in Texas could provide over $50 billion in new economic development and $27 billion in wages for Texas workers through employment of an average of 148,000 people directly or indirectly in construction, operations, and manufacturing.

Another outcome of this push for nuclear energy research and development is the potential for Texas to lead the nation in advanced nuclear power generation. Establishing Texas as the preferred supplier for U.S.-based ANR technology would open international opportunities especially to those who prefer an alternative to Chinese and Russian nuclear reactor technology.

The Working Group also made several recommendations for legislative actions to shore up the state’s ability to attract ANR projects, beginning with creation of a Texas Advanced Nuclear Authority, a nonregulatory entity to coordinate the state’s strategic nuclear vision and implement ANR policy.

Other recommendations included creation of:

• A Texas Nuclear Permitting Officer, a single point of contact for permitting.

• A workforce development program for community colleges and universities to support creating a homegrown nuclear workforce.

• A Texas Advanced Manufacturing Institute to help foster a nuclear ecosystem in Texas.

• A Texas nuclear public outreach program to inform and educate Texans about the benefits of advanced nuclear reactor technology through communications and public engagement.

• A Texas nuclear energy and supply chain fund that would be a direct-grant, cost-sharing program to incentivize early development and siting and to support supply chain and domestic manufacturing capacity.

• A Texas nuclear energy fund, modeled after the Texas Energy Fund, to overcome the funding valley project developers face in Texas.

To streamline the regulatory process to allow the four participating companies to quickly get their reactors operational, Texas A&M officials have already begun the application process with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an Early Site Permit for potential development of commercial electrical and thermal power generation facilities. The site can accommodate multiple SMRs with a combined electrical output of more than 1 gigawatt.

Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish hopes to develop an integral molten salt reactor (IMSR) at the Bryan site. Kairos Power CEO Mike Laufer plans to bring one or more commercial deployments to the site.

Natura Resources CEO Douglass Robison, whose company worked with the university for five years to develop its Natura MSR-1 demonstration system, will now concentrate on deployment of its commercial Natura MSR-100 system. And Aalo Atomics CEO Matt Loszak hopes to build up to six Aalo Pods at the site.

Another Texas-based nuclear power plant project is underway at Abilene Christian University, where Natura Resources is constructing a novel nuclear reactor that will generate reliable “carbon-free” energy while also desalinating water. In 2023, Natura built ACU’s new Science and Engineering Research Center, the first advanced reactor research facility outside a national laboratory in the United States.

Natura had already conducted a feasibility study at the Texas Produced Water Consortium, based at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. They found that, by operating the molten salt reactor at 600 degrees Celsius, it can generate up to 250 megawatts of electricity that can be used for desalination of produced water, other brackish water, or even sea water.

Reactor construction is expected to be completed by 2027, after which the Natura team will begin work on integrating systems to start water desalination. The molten salts, a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride or thorium fluoride salts, act as both a fuel and a coolant.

Gov. Abbott believes that “by utilizing advanced nuclear energy, Texas will enhance the reliability of the state grid and provide affordable, dispatchable power to Texans.”

Building a Texas ANR industry will ensure that Texas remains a leader in energy, but Texas is hardly the only state working in that direction. Perhaps Texas’s biggest rival is based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home to Project Ike, a new nuclear energy development boosted by the new Tennessee Nuclear Energy Fund.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee says the fund, created by the Tennessee General Assembly with a $60 million budget in its inaugural year, was highly successful in recruiting nuclear energy projects, with four announced over a six-month period. Like Gov. Abbott, Gov. Lee wants to make Tennessee “the number one state for nuclear energy companies to invest and thrive.”

Power for the people – what a novel idea!

Reposted from Real Clear Energy.

Duggan Flanakin (duggan@duggansdugout.com) is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.

#Nuclear #NuclearEnergy #Texas #Tennessee #SMR