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Legal counsel for Excel Services urges Kansas to study small modular reactors and microreactors
Summary
Brian Meaders, general counsel at Excel Services Corporation, told the Senate Committee on Utilities that new nuclear technologies—small modular reactors and microreactors—offer dispatchable, carbon-free power with smaller footprints, and recommended state-level feasibility and siting studies to attract developers.
Brian Meaders, general counsel at Excel Services Corporation, told the Senate Committee on Utilities that recent advances in nuclear technology—small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors—offer a low-carbon, dispatchable power source that could serve industrial process heat, data centers and regional grid stability.
Meaders said modern designs are smaller, often factory-built, and have much higher power density than chemical fuels: “Once built, nuclear is cheap and reliable,” he said, adding that new reactors are designed to be “walk-away safe.” He described SMRs sized around a few hundred megawatts that can fit on compact sites and microreactors of roughly 20 megawatts that can be deployed near factories, hospitals or campuses without extensive new transmission.
Meaders told senators the sector is seeing renewed commercial and private-sector interest from major corporations wanting carbon-free, reliable power; he cited examples of private investment and vendor activity nationwide. He said modern designs can reduce land use compared with large-scale wind and solar and can provide firm dispatchable power that complements intermittent renewables.
On operational flexibility, Meaders explained technical limits on rapid power swings for traditional large reactors—citing xenon-related physics—and said some new designs and fuel enrichments (HALU, high-assay low-enriched uranium) afford greater load-following capability. He added that some designs manage transient reductions by using a steam dump to shed heat and then ramp back up.
Senators asked about near-term steps the state could take. Meaders recommended a state-led feasibility and development study—citing Oklahoma bills (SB 130 and HB 1375) as examples—that would identify regulatory barriers, candidate sites, water needs and technology options and provide an informational public document to attract developers. He also discussed other state-level actions such as a single permitting point of contact and steps to shore up supply chains.
Committee members raised regulatory and timing questions. Senator Thompson asked about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and federal oversight; Meaders said he was optimistic about recent federal leadership and noted congressional and NRC-level attention to streamlining licensing. On costs, Meaders described nuclear as a generational asset with high upfront capital needs but low operating dispatch costs over decades.
On microreactors, Meaders said they could be quickly deployed to serve local loads without major transmission upgrades and predicted commercial interest would grow. He estimated a small research reactor project mentioned by the committee (Abilene Christian University) could cost “probably about a billion dollars” but described that as a speaker-attributed estimate rather than a definitive figure.
Meaders concluded that state-level signaling—studies, regulatory streamlining and clear siting pathways—would make Kansas more attractive to developers of new nuclear technologies and to private buyers seeking low-carbon, dispatchable power.
