Illinois is one step closer to building its first new nuclear reactor in nearly 40 years. In February, Governor JB Pritzker directed state agencies to seek proposals for possible sites, and now the responses are in. From a prototype micro reactor at the University of Illinois to communities that are navigating the energy transition, the state that leads the nation in making nuclear power is looking at what's next. Joining us are Nancy Norton, president of the Grundy County Economic Development Council, and Scott Sorl, Peoria County Administrator, as well as James Walker, the CEO of Nano Nuclear Energy. Thanks to all three of you for joining us. So Nancy, Grundy County, why is it suitable for a new nuclear plant?
Well, Grundy County has been home to nuclear for over 60 years. We find ourselves really in the center. We are the host to the Dresden Clean Energy Center owned by Constellation. 20 miles to the east is Braidwood Nuclear Station and 20 miles to the west is Lasalle Station. So we have a comfort with nuclear, we have the workforce for nuclear, we have the safety mechanisms in place and frankly the infrastructure and the transmission to get the power out to the customers. So we think it's an ideal location.
And you mentioned Constellation. That's the owner operator of the existing many of the existing nuclear facilities already in the state of Illinois.
Absolutely. Yes, they are.
What do the existing plants contribute to the state?
Well, I can't speak for all the plants, but I can tell you what they contribute in our community. So, you know, it's almost 1,800 megawatts of power, 700 jobs, probably approximately $26 million a year in property taxes to our local districts. And apart from the economic impact directly, we also have the benefit of being able to market our location to have power. As we all know, power is a real scarce commodity these days. And so we have transmission lines, we have power sources, power assets, and that's a really compelling case for advanced manufacturing and other renewable opportunities as well.
Scott, why Peoria County?
Well, we're in a different position. We have a closed coal-fired power plant that's owned by Vistra Energy. We have the same workforce qualities that the communities that have a nuclear power plant already have. We have the connectivity to the grid that many of those communities have, but I think where we separate ourselves is we've been very supportive and agnostic of all the alternative energy sources. We have some of the highest number of locally approved utility-scale solar projects in the state. We're going to have two large utility-scale wind turbine projects, each one's going to be in excess of 100 turbines, and we are at this point in time not closing a door to nuclear but making sure that that door stays open if the opportunity presents itself to walk through that door.
Uh James, what's different about what your company is working on at the University of Illinois?
So everyone's probably familiar with the traditional nuclear reactor systems, the big systems, but the new generation of reactors is just much smaller. It's been essentially shrunken down and then it's allowed for nuclear to be deployed in ways it's never been deployed before. So mining sites, oil and gas sites, remote communities, islands, but our reactor is in the middle of a university. It's going to be powering the campus. So nuclear has never been deployed in that kind of flexible deployment model before where the reactor will be, all the components will ship to site as a modular system, assembled there and then begin to immediately output power. And the amazing thing about this new level of tech is it can be co-located with the customer. In this case, it's going to be surrounded by the university, surrounded by dorm rooms, and immediately just put power into the outer power plant. You know, this could be very transformative not just for the university and the state, but globally is deploying nuclear in ways it's never been deployed before.
Nancy, what do you think the timeline would be like for construction of a new facility?
It really depends on the facility. You know, the long lead times for what were historic big reactor nuclear facilities, the lead times are significant. But the SMRs, the small modular reactors, the micro reactors, all of those sorts of things. There's lots of technologies out there. We understand that they're maybe about eight years out till they're absolutely to market and ready for market. But you know, we're kind of waiting and seeing, but I know the large reactors take a lot longer.
And when you say the large reactors, you mean like these that we're seeing on screen right now, the big silos that everybody's used to seeing when we're talking about nuclear power.
