Illinois Legislation on Permitting Small Modular Reactors

Illinois passed a law in November, 2023, that would allow companies to develop new nuclear power generation in the state for the first time since 1987. House Bill 2473 does not entirely lift the 36-year-old moratorium on nuclear construction, but it creates a regulatory structure for the construction of small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs.

The bill limits the nameplate capacity of such reactors to 300 megawatts, about one-third the size of the smallest of the six existing nuclear power plants in Illinois. It also requires the state to perform a study that will inform rules for regulating SMRs, which will be adopted by regulators at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency by January 2026.