Constellation Energy, Blue Energy and NANO Nuclear have formally expressed interest in building new nuclear energy in Illinois.
The three nuclear entities responded to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D) notice of inquiry that was conducted by the Illinois Commerce Commission through a February executive order. That gubernatorial action set out a target goal of adding at least 2 gigawatts or 2,000 megawatts of new nuclear energy. The order came about after Pritzker repealed the state’s nuclear moratorium through new legislation in January.
In a Tuesday report from the Illinois Commerce Commission, three entities discussed current and potential plans for deployment in Illinois. Constellation, which owns and operates all 11 of the state’s nuclear reactors, does not plan to build any new large reactor plants. Instead, the utility intends to uprate several of its plants, such as Clinton and Dresden.
Constellation also told the Illinois Commerce Commission if it were to consider building a new reactor, it would just add to an existing plant instead of constructing a new site, which would take 10 to 11 years to complete, according to the document.
Blue Energy, founded in 2023, plans to develop multiple sites in Illinois that would be devised to have three to five BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs). This gives each power plant a generating capacity of 900 to 1,500 megawatts. The Illinois Commerce Commission said Blue Energy’s initial site has been secured and will take on a gas-to-nuclear approach.
The gas-to-nuclear configuration starts out the plant as a gas plant while the nuclear reactor is under construction. Once the reactor is completed, the power plant turns to nuclear power to generate electricity.
NANO has plans to build its KRONOS microreactor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for research purposes. The Illinois Commerce Commission said in the report that NANO could build new units by 2027 at the earliest and be commercially operational by a 2029-2030 timeline. The commercial KRONOS microreactor is designed to produce up to 15 megawatts.
The report on the developers came out after nine Illinois communities expressed interest in hosting new nuclear projects.