NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The growing need for reliable, carbon-free power is renewing electric cooperatives’ interest in nuclear energy, but they want more certainty around costs and deployment timelines to pursue new investments, especially in emerging nuclear technologies, panelists said at NRECA PowerXchange.

“We do believe the strategic fit is there,” Oglethorpe Power Corp. Chief Operating Officer Rich Wallen said during a March 9 session. “We just need to trim up the execution pieces, but for an effective load-carrying capability and energy density, nuclear really hits the mark in so many areas for us.”

Coal plant retirements and expectations for surging power demand in the years ahead are driving the restart of idled nuclear plants and leading electric utilities to weigh future investments in the baseload energy source.

Oglethorpe, which is based in Tucker, Georgia, co-owns the recently constructed Units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle nuclear plant in Waynesboro, Georgia. The units, which entered service in 2024, are the first advanced commercial nuclear reactors to come online in the U.S. in more than three decades.

“As we look out, there is clearly a place for nuclear,” Wallen said. “I think that’s the reason nuclear is back in the conversation as it should be.”

Along with demonstrated nuclear technologies, co-ops and other utilities are eyeing the potential of small modular reactors—more compact nuclear units that can be factory-manufactured and transported to the project site.

SMRs are also designed to ramp up and down more easily than large traditional plants, letting them provide backup power to intermittent renewable resources. Several SMR projects are in development, although none have been deployed commercially in the U.S.

“As we pair innovation, scalability along with emission-free energy that can help integrate some of the intermittency … these are all really exciting times for all of us,” Wallen said.

But co-ops are wary of risks related to cost, supply chain constraints and deployment schedules for nuclear energy, along with the immaturity of advanced nuclear designs.

“What we do need to see to make us all more comfortable is demonstrated repeatable cost structures, predictable [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] licensing timelines, federal financing, financial support and [cost] backstops that are really meaningful,” Wallen said.

Tennessee Valley Authority is considering an SMR project at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that would use GE Vernova Hitachi’s BWRX-300 design. The public power provider has applied for a construction permit with the NRC and expects to receive it this year. TVA’s board has not yet approved construction.

In December, the project won a $400 million cost-sharing grant from the Department of Energy but will need more financial support to keep costs down, said Scott Hunnewell, vice president of TVA’s new nuclear program.

“With that first-of-a-kind [project] comes additional cost, and we can’t pass those costs on to our ratepayers,” Hunnewell said on the PowerXchange panel.

The DOE award “definitely helps,” he said. “It’s a step in the right direction, but we need some additional offsets to really make Clinch River 1 move forward.”

Increased deployment of nuclear energy also requires adequate testing to make sure those facilities can properly integrate with an increasingly complex grid, work that can be performed at the DOE’s national labs.

“The challenges with nuclear is not the technology, it’s not about the physics of it, it is more how do we integrate those technologies with the legacy system,” said Rob Hovsapian, senior research fellow in energy resilience at the Savannah River National Laboratory. “What is the cost associated with it? How do we reduce those risks?”

Dan Walsh, NRECA’s senior power supply and generation director, runs a member advisory group that includes all the association’s generation and transmission co-ops, as well as TVA and investor-owned utilities such as Southern Co. and Duke Energy. The group looks at what’s best for co-ops on nuclear energy and what direction co-ops should take on the energy resource.

By virtue of their size, Walsh said, co-ops will likely opt to sign power purchase agreements or co-own nuclear facilities, rather than develop them. But he expects the costs of nuclear energy will come down as different technologies mature.

“If we all work together, we’ll definitely be successful,” he said.

“These are 60- to 100-year assets. You can run them forever and ever, and it’s reliable power and it supports our energy dominance.”