Overview

Currently, there are no operating nuclear reactors located within Kentucky. Most of Kentucky’s electricity comes from coal (68%), followed by Natural Gas (abt. 23%), with smaller amounts coming from hydroelectricity and solar.

More recently, some lawmakers and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet have been exploring recent innovations in nuclear energy. During 2022, the Energy and Environment Cabinet partnered with GAIN (Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear) to explore the potential for small scale nuclear power.

This includes the potential for “Small modular reactors” (SMRs) which are advanced nuclear reactors that have a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, which is about one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors. SMRs can produce a large amount of low-carbon electricity.

Power plants based on SMRs may require less frequent refueling (every 3 to 7 years), in comparison to between 1 and 2 years for conventional plants. Some SMRs are designed to operate for up to 30 years without refueling.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the design of the first SMR in 2020 and NuScale was the first company in the U.S. to have their design certified in 2023. However as of January 2023, there are no SMRs operating in the U.S., and only three are operational in the world.

Waste and Storage Issues Remain

Nuclear energy facilities store used fuel safely and securely on site. The U.S. nuclear industry is working with the federal government on a solution for permanently storing fuel rods at a consolidated location.

• All the used nuclear fuel produced by the nuclear energy industry over 60 years—if stacked end to end—would cover an area the size of a football field to a depth of less than 10 yards.

• One pellet, the size of your fingertip, creates as much energy as one ton of coal, 149 gallons of oil or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas. This means used nuclear fuel takes up little space when it is eventually stored.

Projects impacting Land and Wildlife:

Kentucky wildlife management officials are swapping land in West Kentucky to benefit a prospective nuclear fuel enrichment company looking to establish itself in McCracken County.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources are reported to be turning over 665 acres of its 6,425-acre West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area to Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), an Australian company that seeks to use lasers to enrich uranium left over from hundreds of thousands of depleted uranium tails at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. 

In exchange, the KDFWR is receiving 1,043 acres near the Mississippi River in Fulton County to expand its existing 4,258-acre Obion Creek Wildlife Management Area. Story HERE.

Legislative History

The history of nuclear legislation in Kentucky has been limited but has become more active in the past few years as lawmakers have considered new technologies. H.B. 559 (enacted, 2012) allowed for the construction of facilities that use certain nuclear technologies, so long as electricity was not the primary output, but the state’s moratorium on the building of new nuclear facilities to generate electricity remained in place. During that same session, S.B. 89 (failed) would have removed the state’s moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power facilities, but would have required facilities to have a plan for storage, and H.B. 103 (failed) would have allowed for construction of a nuclear power facility on or within 50 miles of a site previously used for the manufacture of nuclear products.

During the 2017 legislative session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 11 (Carroll), “An Act Relating to Nuclear Power” which repealed KRS 278.605 relating to the construction of nuclear power facilities among its provisions. It also prohibited the construction of low-level nuclear waste disposal sites in Kentucky except as provided in KRS 211.852.

During the 2022 General Assembly, Senator Carroll filed Senate Concurrent Resolution 171, requesting the Legislative Research Commission to examine funding sources and research institutions capable of conducting a feasibility study of advanced nuclear energy technology for electric power generation in the Commonwealth. The resolution was adopted in the Senate but not the House.

For the 2023 session, lawmakers passed, and the Governor has signed, Senate Joint Resolution 79, calling for the formation of the Nuclear Energy Development Working Group to identify barriers in place to the deployment of nuclear power generation, develop recommendations for a permanent nuclear energy commission, consult with impacted stakeholders on what the role of the permanent nuclear energy commission should be. KCC was one of over twenty members within this working group. The report of that working group may be found here.

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 198 (Carroll), Establishing the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority to serve as the nonregulatory state government agency on nuclear energy issues and to support and facilitate the development of nuclear energy in Kentucky among its provisions. The Governor vetoed the bill based on constitutional issues, however it was overridden.

The bill gave KCC the authority to designate a "representative for environmental interests" to the advisory board. We have a representative participating, but we remain concerned about the substantial environmental and financial risks of nuclear development, especially in light of Kentucky's pernicious management of nuclear sites in the past, and the potential to shift those risks to Kentuckians and utility customers instead of utilities and their shareholders.

Energy and Environment Cabinet has been researching the latest technology on Advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Whether or not this research will lead to an expansion of this technology in Kentucky remains to be seen.

During the 2025 Legislative Session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 179 (Carroll) which establishes the Nuclear Energy Development Grant Program to be administered by the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority. Allows $10,000,000 of the amount appropriated to the University of Kentucky budget unit for the Center of Applied Energy Research's administration and support of the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Authority and the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission for fiscal year 2025-2026 to be used for the Nuclear Energy Development Grant Program.

Resources

U.S. nuclear electricity generation capacity peaked in 2012 at about 102,000 MW when there were 104 operating nuclear reactors. At the end of 2021, there were 93 operating reactors with a combined generation capacity of about 95,492 MW.

The newest reactor to enter service, Watts Bar Unit 2, came online in 2016—the first reactor to come online since 1996 when the Watts Bar Unit 1 came online. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of November 2021, there were 23 shut down commercial nuclear power reactors at 19 sites in various stages of decommissioning.

The two new reactors that are now under construction—Vogtle Units 3 and 4—in Georgia are expected to come online before 2023.

White House Report:

• Safely and Responsibly Expanding U.S. Nuclear Energy: Deployment Targets and a Framework for Action

Federal Legislation:

• Advance Act of 2023

U.S. Energy Information Administration

• “Nuclear Explained”

• “Nuclear Power and the Environment”

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• Review of the Environmental Impact of Nuclear Energy (2020).

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet

• Nuclear Development Workgroup page.

World Nuclear Association

• Information page on Advanced nuclear reactors.

• Information page on small nuclear power reactors.

Other/Legislative:

• National Council of State Legislatures state profile on nuclear (2016)

Border States:

Tennessee: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is planning to build small modular reactors (SMRs) at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with the first reactor potentially operational by 2033. These SMRs, like the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300, are designed to be more compact, and cost-effective than traditional large nuclear power plants. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded TVA the first early site permit for SMRs in the nation, which approves the site for SMR construction. 

Ohio: Maryland-based Centrus Energy  runs the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, which is nearly 70 miles south of Columbus. The facility is the only American-owned enrichment plant currently in operation. The world's four leading uranium enrichment operations are all foreign owned, including one in Russia, one in China, another in France and one jointly run by Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, according to the letter.

Redevelopment has long been eyed for the 1,200-acre site of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, a place once made famous for producing the fuel for the nation's nuclear weapons. The plant operated from 1954 to 2001, initially producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and then for commercial nuclear reactors.

Remediation of the site began in 1989 and as it was completed, land was turned over to the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative for redevelopment.

Centrus began enriching uranium again at its Piketon plant in October 2023. It marked the first time in decades the site was again being used for nuclear development.

In 2022, 80 acres of the land for the original plant were sold to Trillium, a company that wants to build a hydrogen-fueled power plant on the site. Construction on the $1.8 billion investment could start in 2026, creating 2,100 construction jobs and 280 permanent jobs.

Oklo, a developer of small nuclear power plants, wants to build two reactors on the site.