TO CREATE A TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY STUDY ON NEW NUCLEAR ENERGY GENERATION; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.

Arkansas requires a nuclear power study

Arkansas’s Department of Energy and Environment must hire an outside firm within 60 days after the law is funded. The firm must study the benefits, drawbacks, costs, and environmental effects of nuclear power in Arkansas. No specific funding amount is stated, and the law does not directly change household electric bills. The firm must be established in the nuclear industry, serve a large majority of U.S. nuclear operators, and have a substantial history focused on nuclear licensing. Its staff must have expertise in reactor design, operation, technology studies, licensing, regulation, and siting. The firm must be neutral about reactor technologies and designs. Preference goes to firms managed and substantially owned by military veterans with nuclear operating experience. The study must recommend reactor designs, suitable sites, safety standards, engineering needs, and transportation and electric transmission requirements. It must consider site conditions, technology readiness, and industrial uses, including data centers, existing energy facilities, military bases, and process heat. It must assess all commercially available nuclear technologies that can be licensed, including small modular reactors and microreactors. It must cover testing standards, documented successes, workforce training, tax bases, supply chains, and temporary and permanent jobs. It must include a development timeline, ways existing facilities can speed development, and a review of research on nuclear power’s role in the energy transition. It must assess supporting policies, federal programs, and other financing options. An independent third party must check the report’s technical accuracy and independence. The firm must consult the department, investor-owned utilities, electric generation and transmission cooperatives, and nuclear manufacturers. Utilities and cooperatives must provide needed information after notice, with state-law confidentiality safeguards. The firm must establish safeguards with manufacturers to protect intellectual property and confidential information from public disclosure. The department must deliver the report within 15 months after the law takes effect. Recipients include the Governor, Senate President Pro Tempore, House Speaker, both chambers’ majority and minority leaders, and Joint Committee on Energy chairpersons. The emergency clause makes the law effective upon gubernatorial approval, expiration of the veto period without action, or the final veto-override vote.