Public Service Commission hears INL 'Lance' report urging preparation for advanced nuclear

The Public Service Commission in downtown Baton Rouge heard a presentation of the Idaho National Laboratory's Lance report that outlines steps Louisiana could take to position itself for advanced nuclear deployment, including small modular reactors.

Paul Shelander, introduced as a senior adviser contracted with the Idaho National Laboratory, summarized the report's purpose and three pillars: generation, supply chain and value chain. "This report is a guidepost to set up what I think could help Louisiana become a national leader in this space," Shelander said. He told commissioners the document intentionally frames options rather than requirements: "the word 'shall' does not show up there; it's all what do you want to do."

Commissioners said the report has high-level support from the governor's office and stressed that utilities and state agencies must be engaged to move from study to action. A commissioner noted integrated resource planning (IRP) as a key forum to evaluate nuclear as a resource and to consider regulatory preapproval, pointing to North Carolina's recent approach as an example.

An industry speaker representing Entergy Louisiana described the cost trade-offs: while combined-cycle gas plants may have installed costs in the order of $1,000 per kilowatt, he said new nuclear units can have much higher up-front capital costs (the transcript cited roughly $10,000 per kilowatt as an example), with fuel-cost advantages thereafter. Speakers discussed typical SMR sizes in recent evaluations (roughly 300 MW) and vendor estimates that delivery could occur in about five to six years after an order, while acknowledging first-of-a-kind projects are significantly more expensive.

Commission staff said they are conducting technology assessments and site-specific analyses to estimate costs and to feed those estimates into the commission's next IRP cycle. Staff also described potential regulatory-finance approaches, such as stepwise regulatory preapproval, to reduce early-stage investment risk for utilities.

The commission took no binding policy vote on the Lance report itself at the meeting. Commissioners directed staff to continue technical assessments, pursue stakeholder coordination and pursue next steps that could include prioritizing use cases, seeking funding opportunities and further technical conferences.

The commission moved on to other agenda items; staff and presenters indicated more detailed cost and site reports would be filed with the commission in the months ahead.