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Chairman: Minnesota must consider nuclear study while moratorium and tribal concerns persist
Summary
The chairman said the state has not repealed a 1990s moratorium on new nuclear plants and that any future nuclear development must address the Prairie Island Indian Community’s concerns about waste storage; he also said the Senate has repeatedly passed a nuclear study that may advance this year.
The chairman, speaking about Minnesota’s path to 100% clean energy, said the moratorium on new nuclear plants that dates to the 1990s remains in place and that the Senate has passed a nuclear study several years running.
“We created a couple things — renewable development account money that will help to pay for clean-energy projects and the moratorium. That said, until we come up with a solution that’s OK with Prairie Island ... we won’t build anymore,” the chairman said, describing the moratorium’s origin tied to nuclear waste stored near the Prairie Island Indian Community.
He said legacy large-scale nuclear is not cost-competitive today in his view, but added there is growing interest in advanced nuclear technologies and small modular reactors being deployed elsewhere. He framed the study as a way to examine whether new forms of nuclear or other approaches are necessary to meet the state’s decarbonization targets as demand grows.
The transcript does not provide the speaker’s full name or a detailed legislative text for the moratorium or the study; references to the moratorium’s legal basis and the Prairie Island agreement were presented as background during the interview.
Next steps: The chairman said he expects work on the nuclear study to move forward in the current session, with further discussion needed on community acceptance, cost competitiveness and waste disposal solutions before any change in policy.
