Governor Maura Healey’s administration is powering up its efforts to usher in new sources of nuclear energy to Massachusetts.
On Thursday, the administration announced that it had contracted with the University of Massachusetts Lowell to design “roadmaps” for spurring new sources of nuclear generation, including those that rely on fusion, a still-experimental form of energy that produces minimal waste. The resulting report, which will cost $250,000 and take several months to complete, will look at the factors, attributes, and policies that could help expand the research, manufacturing, and deployment of nuclear energy in the state.
The assignment to UMass Lowell follows Healey’s decision to file an energy bill in May that would, among other things, remove the stipulation in state law that requires a positive statewide vote before another nuclear reactor is built. (Fusion reactors are already exempt from that requirement.)
It’s among the latest signs of how nuclear energy has become politically favorable again, after decades of vilification, as proponents focus on its minimal carbon emissions. Another sign: On Wednesday, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation released a survey showing 51 percent of likely voters in Massachusetts support building new nuclear power plants in New England.
The Healey and Trump administrations, which have been at odds over the future of offshore wind energy in particular, seem to agree about the importance of fostering more nuclear energy. On Monday, Chris Wright, President Trump’s energy secretary, met with Healey and Commonwealth Fusion Systems chief executive Bob Mumgaard at the company’s Devens facility to discuss the future of fusion energy.
“We’ve been looking at all energy sources and trying to think about how we can add new energy supply to the region,” said Rebecca Tepper, Healey’s energy and environmental affairs secretary. “We want to make sure that when this industry really takes off, that we’re ready to be there to compete with other states.”
Only two nuclear power plants remain in New England: Dominion’s Millstone plant in Waterford, Conn., and NextEra’s Seabrook plant, just over the Massachusetts line in New Hampshire. Still, those two plants provide around one-quarter of New England’s electricity. (The Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth was shut down permanently six years ago and is in the process of being decommissioned.)
A modern, smaller version of these reactors, known as a small modular reactor, has become a hot topic in the energy industry, particularly as the need for more electricity increases with the rise of data centers as well as electric heating and vehicles. Holtec, for example, is planning to reopen its Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and then augment it with two SMRs, as they’re called, in a few years. And Cambridge-based GE Vernova aims to complete the first SMR in North America in 2029, on the shores of Lake Ontario.
“The fact there is this first wave of projects happening, it’s a real opportunity for us, we can learn from that,” Tepper said.
Massachusetts is already a little late to this party, compared with other states. Early this year, the National Association of State Energy Officials announced an initiative involving “First Movers” in the nuclear sector, including New York and Pennsylvania as well as nine other states, none of them in New England.
Given the deep research expertise here, particularly at MIT and UMass Lowell, Massachusetts should join the conversation encouraging nuclear power, said UMass Lowell nuclear expert Sukesh Aghara, who will lead the roadmap project. He hopes it will provide information for policy-makers looking at nuclear energy as a way to protect the grid’s reliability while curbing carbon emissions.
“As an engineer and a realist, I feel we need to look at alternatives that complement our great goal of renewable energy,” said Aghara, associate dean at UMass Lowell’s college of engineering. “We may not be the first movers, but we can take advantage of the best designs in the second wave [of nuclear deployment].”
Kevin Knobloch, a former energy official in the Obama administration who now runs the Knobloch Energy consulting firm, said that opinions of nuclear energy have shifted in part because of the US sector’s safety record in recent years and the increasing threat of climate change.
“We’re fighting a losing battle at this point [with climate change],” Knobloch said. “We have to decarbonize as rapidly as we can. ... Nuclear, particularly in its advanced form, is ready to rise to the occasion.”
Holtec’s director of government affairs, Patrick O’Brien, said Michigan officials played an instrumental role in reopening the Palisades plant, including by offering $300 million in state grant funds. Holtec is investing around $500 million of its own money in the project, and has been awarded a federal loan of $1.5 billion, of which it expects to use about half of the funds.
“In New England, it’s still a challenge,” said O’Brien, whose company is handling the decommissioning of the Pilgrim plant in Plymouth. “A lot of that is due to 40 to 50 years of anti-nuclear activism. ... Some of the other states are far ahead of where we are. That doesn’t mean Massachusetts can’t make up for it, but it’s a heavy lift.”
O’Brien called the governor’s legislative proposal to remove the ballot question requirement for new nuclear energy a “necessary step” and one that he found a little surprising.
“If you had told me 10 years ago [when he started at Pilgrim] that the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is nuclear power,” O’Brien said, “I would have told you you’re crazy.”
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.