Wisconsin Utility Seeking to Restart its Nuclear Power Division

by Alan Cruz, age 18

The La Crosse-based utility company, Dairyland Power, has agreed with NuScale Power to revisit its commercial use of atomic power. Dairyland operated Wisconsin’s first nuclear power plant at a time before a 1983 ban on new plants. In 2016, however, the state assembly lifted this ban.

Six years later Dairyland Power now plans on using NuScale’s small-scale nuclear generating technology as power sources for thousands of customers across four midwestern states.

John Carr, Vice President-Strategic Growth at Dairyland Power, said that new “out of the box” ideas are needed to cut the company's greenhouse gas emissions as well as its dependency on fossil fuels. Carr believes all possibilities should be explored, including nuclear power, as Dairyland's technology is a far cry from the technology the company abandoned four decades ago.

Many experts believe that electrical infrastructure in the future can be sustained using wind, solar, and storage. Others believe that a more marketable source, such as nuclear power, will also be required. Paul Wilson, professor of nuclear engineering at UW-Madison stated, “In a carbon-constrained world there’s going to be, I think, a growing role for nuclear energy.”

NuScale’s new factory-built reactor was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2021. This new reactor will be smaller, safer, and more cost-effective than a traditional power plant, according to NuScale. Unlike many commercial reactors, these small-scale reactors can operate without the use of pumps and inside below-ground pools, which can fit any of Dairyland’s established power sites.

NuScale has yet to release a product but it plans on first generating electricity in 2029 with a recently established reactor in Idaho. Although the company hasn’t produced any nuclear energy for commercial use, it aims to implement these reactors in other states with the hope they will produce enough profits to pay for any subsequent reactors.

Many experts believe that small-scale nuclear power is a step in the right direction in reducing use of fossil fuels. Designers say that for the foreseeable future this type of technology will be practical at times when wind or solar power are not available.

[Sources: Wisconsin State Journal ; Madison.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ]