If approved by federal regulators, the Texas A& M System would be the only higher education institution in the country with a commercial nuclear reactor site license, according to John Sharp, its chancellor. The university had offered up land it owns around the state for developers to build natural gas power plants in May.
The university is now courting nuclear energy companies because its leaders believe building more nuclear plants is the "obvious and only answer to the power supply problems in Texas," Sharp said in an interview.
"The reason that we decided to look at it is because we can. If you look at the politics of the West Coast, the politics of the East Coast, in some places even in Texas, any mention of the nuclear reactors is politically not feasible. That's not the case here," Sharp said. He cited existing nuclear facilities throughout campus, including a 1-megawatt reactor near Easterwood Airport used for research.
Demand for power in Texas could almost double by 2030 as the state welcomes more people and businesses, especially power-hungry data centers necessary for the development of artificial intelligence, further straining the already stretched-thin Texas power grid. Though clean energy resources have grown rapidly, state leaders say they are still concerned about power supply because wind and solar farms are dependent on weather conditions and batteries can only store a couple hours' worth of power.
Leading technology companies are faced with their own quandary: How can they thread the needle of building new data centers that need electricity 24/7, without propping up fossil fuels against their commitments to reduce carbon emissions? For many, one answer has been to revive the nation's nuclear energy industry, which began stagnating in the 1970s due to escalating cost and safety concerns.
As Big Tech and nuclear power companies forge deals, however, few suitable locations have been identified for where those new plants will go, according to a statement issued Thursday by Texas A&M. That's where the university hopes to step in.
Texas A&M's Board of Regents voted unanimously at a Thursday meeting to send the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a notice of its intent to seek an early site permit that would allow nuclear reactors to be built on Rellis Campus, the first official step in providing land to developers.
The goal is to have about five nuclear reactors from different companies scattered across parcels of the 2,300-acre campus by the early- to mid-2030s, Sharp said. They'd range from 10 megawatts to 200 megawatts — much bigger than the research nuclear generator near the airport — and be connected to the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, he said. (One megawatt can power 250 Texas homes, according to ERCOT.)
Earlier this year, 23 organizations replied to a request from Texas A&M for feedback on its plans to potentially invite nuclear reactors to campus, Sharp said. The university declined to share how many companies or which ones responded to its subsequent request for proposals to build reactors, though the founder of Natura Resources, a nuclear company based in Abilene, told Texas lawmakers at a September committee hearing the company planned to submit one.
The type of nuclear plants Texas A&M wants to host are known as small modular reactors, which are smaller and designed to be cheaper to build than traditional reactors. They're often touted as safer, though some environmental organizations and scientists remain skeptical.
Texas A&M aims to serve as a proving ground for the new technology given that it has the largest nuclear engineering program in the country, Sharp said. How the university would participate in the projects is subject to negotiations with potential developers, which are expected to begin soon.
But even if the university's future site permit application is approved, a process that could take years, prospective developers would still have to go through other lengthy approvals while the advanced nuclear industry works to overcome significant cost barriers to prove its commercial viability. One company, Oregon-based NuScale Power, canceled its project last year after cost estimates skyrocketed to $9.3 billion from an initial $3 billion.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has put together a working group to study how the state can encourage nuclear development, with its report due to Gov. Greg Abbott by Dec. 1.
The Biden administration announced $900 million in funding to support small modular reactors in October, with applications due in January. It's unclear if the Department of Energy's enthusiasm for nuclear will continue under President-elect Donald Trump, who has expressed concerns about the technology's costs and safety.
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