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A Republican measure that would waive certain state regulations to allow large industrial energy users like data centers build small nuclear reactors in rural Arizona cleared its first hurdle this week.
House Majority Leader Michael Carbone told the House Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 18 that his legislation is about removing state regulation and is about beating foreign adversaries who are doing similar things. Multiple other countries have begun to pursue the technology including allies and adversaries to the United States.
House Bill 2774 would do that by letting a “large industrial energy user” place a “small modular nuclear reactor” in their facility without having to get a certificate of environmental compatibility. They would also be exempt from local zoning restrictions if the facility is in a county with a population of less than 500,000. Every county in the state except Maricopa and Pima have a population less than 500,000.
Nuclear reactor advocacy groups have raised more than $1.5 billion to push for these style of reactors amid the ongoing AI boom. Generative artificial intelligence, like Chat GPT and others, is generally only possible with large amounts of power and the use of data centers.
Other states, such as Utah, are also investigating the use of small nuclear reactors, often called SMRs for short. (SMR stands for “small modular reactor.”)
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While lobbyists representing the energy sector and data centers voiced support for the bill, those representing counties and environmental advocacy groups shared concerns about deregulating the implementation of nuclear energy.
“Local residents have interest in the facilities that are located near their homes,” Jacob Emnett, a lobbyist for the County Supervisors Association of Arizona, told lawmakers on the committee.
While the group is neutral on the bill and see that creation of SMRs could help communities impacted by the loss of coal plants, they are worried about the bill preempting localities from having a say in an SMR being placed in a community.
“I just want to say they are expensive and they’re risky,” said Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, adding that other places that have investigated SMRs in the United States have found them to be especially costly. A similar proposal in Utah is set to cost upwards of $9.3 billion.
“It is not cheap, it is not clean and there are much better ways to approach our energy needs,” she added.
SMRs are a relatively new technology, and the Union of Concerned Scientists has said that many of the perceived benefits have either not been proven or are not true at all. For example, there are still debates on what to do about waste created by nuclear facilities, something noted by Rep. Mae Peshlakai, D-Cameron.
“They really don’t think about the consequences or the suffering that it has produced and we all know that,” Peshlakai said, mentioning the ongoing fight Navajo Nation leaders have been having about uranium being transported through their land.
The bill’s sponsor, as well as other Republicans on the committee, said that SMRs are needed to make Arizona competitive, adding that they believe renewable energy cannot meet the demands of data centers, which are notorious for using lots of water and power.
The bill passed out of committee along party lines and will head to the full House of Representatives for a vote next.
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