Opening the Nuclear Sector Up to Innovation in Missouri

“Specialists will be needed to rapidly deploy any new technology like small-modular reactors (SMRs). However, it is expensive to build new technology (as SMRs would be), since there are likely to be unforeseen challenges. These first-of-a-kind (FOAK) costs usually come down with experience and repetition, but asking regulated utilities to handle it would likely be slow and expensive. Further, it simply may not be a risk that ratepayers are willing to accept.

With CRE, different types of private developers could meet different needs for large projects separated from the grid supported by ratepayers.

Consider an example. CRE would allow a private electricity developer that specializes in SMRs for data centers to partner with a data center developer to meet its desire for clean nuclear energy. This is a very lucrative market—there are significant incentives to specialize in meeting this demand, and this kind of pairing allows each party to do what it does best.

New deployments with less red tape would help test new technologies more quickly and identify areas to improve efficiency—which could reduce build time and lower costs in the long run.”

https://showmeinstitute.org/article/economy/opening-the-nuclear-sector-up-to-innovation-in-missouri/