Are you ready to bet your paycheck on SMRs? Hoosier ratepayers will be doing just that if legislative efforts within the Indiana General Assembly are successful! Small modular (nuclear) reactors or SMRs have the potential to drive massive increases in utility bills under HB 1007, SB 424 and SB 423.
These bills enable utilities to charge ratepayers for SMR planning, design and permitting activities, along with a guaranteed rate of return, even if the project is delayed, over budget or never even built. This is risky business because the track record for SMRs and nuclear energy has not been good. For example, in Georgia, Southern Co. recently completed the first new nuclear plant built in the US in decades, but the project finished 7 years behind schedule and cost more than $30 billion – more than double the cost projections. In Idaho, an ambitious effort by NuScale to deploy SMRs was cancelled after the project’s price tag ballooned from $5 billion to $9 billion.
Currently no SMRs are operating in the US and only three are functioning in the entire world. There are cheaper, faster, and better ways for Indiana to meet our energy needs. Renewables paired with storage, demand management through virtual power plants, harnessing the energy of our growing electric vehicle fleet and community solar paired with batteries are just a few ways to minimize cost AND meet energy demands. If Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta want to invest in new SMR technology, that’s fine. But don’t put the level of risk associated with speculative venture capital on Hoosier ratepayers – many who are struggling just to get by!

TOP 10 REASONS TO OPPOSE THIS SMR LEGISLATION
- Currently there are no operating SMRs – the technology is still not commercialized which adds to the expense.
- Nuclear is the most expensive form of new energy. Whereas the cost of solar has decreased 99% since the 1970’s – nuclear has stayed expensive since the 1950’s.
- Massive energy demand growth has repeatedly been falsely predicted over the decades. Yesterday’s announcement that DeepSeek has developed a new AI platform that requires much less energy is an example of how quickly expectations can change.
- Developing the manufacturing capability to build SMRs at scale will take decades – even if it works, prices aren’t coming down soon.
- Radioactive waste from SMRs will be stored on site, in communities.
- The new Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia reinforced its reactor to be able to withstand a direct strike from an airplane and put a massive water tank above it to be able to temporarily cool it in the instance of a meltdown.
- HB 1007 also includes provisions designed to slow the closure of costly and dirty coal fired power generation.
- Indiana has clean technologies that can boost our energy grid, meet growing energy demand, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions now. There are cheaper, faster, and better clean energy technologies.
- Planning and permitting a new SMR is likely to cost $200-$300 million – even before any concrete is poured.
- In a Utility Dive article, Criag Piercy, CEO and executive director of the American Nuclear Society said, “Setbacks are to be expected when it comes to pioneering technology like small modular reactors…”