Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Under HB 434, the new state nuclear authority would perform “an essential government function [on] matters of public necessity for which public moneys may be spent and private property acquired.” The bill offers no estimate of how much money would ultimately be spent. Any fiscal impacts would not be known until an agreement with the NRC or the DoE.
Meetings of the nuclear authority would be considered public meetings. However, the nuclear authority could use staff or experts at the Ohio Department of Development. This state agency delegates many activities to JobsOhio. This institution is a statutorily created corporation that is exempt from Ohio’s public record law. Funding for JobsOhio comes for Ohio Liquor pursuant to a partnership with the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Liquor Control. The Department of Development has not commented on what role JobsOhio might plant if HB 434 is enacted.
Peter Bradford is a former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner who has also served as utility regulator in New York. He said, “It’s hard to know who’s going to be more disappointed — the citizens of Ohio if that bill becomes law and they actually spend any money trying to promote a molten-salt thorium-based reactor, or the promoters of the bill if anyone takes a serious look at how much it would cost actually to incubate a thorium fuel-cycle in Ohio.”
Bradford went on to say, “Nuclear power’s biggest problem is its cost,” and noted that thorium-based molten salt reactors are more expensive than other designs. He added. “Also, they are at least a decade away from being licensed and building a prototype, which would still have to prove itself to be reliable and economically competitive, which it is unlikely to be able to do.” He estimated it would take about ten billion dollars to build a prototype. However, it probably would not be able to produce electricity economically.
It is unclear what, if anything, the bill could actually authorize without approval from the NRC or the DoE. The nuclear authority would not be able to proceed with the construction of a molten salt reactor on its own without a permit from a U.S. federal agency. Stein said that a legislative resolution had requested a delegation of authority from the federal government. That has not happened yet.
Bradford said, “It’s not obvious really that [HB 434] does much more than lend comfort to the tub thumpers for thorium or small reactors generally.” Other designs for new reactors are closer to coming online than the molten salt reactor envisioned by HB 434 supporters. Gehin said, “A molten salt reactor isn’t going to be the next one over the finish line.”
Lyman and Bradford have mentioned that they found it odd for HB 434 to follow so soon on the heels of HB 6. HB 6 was the nuclear and coal bailout law at the heart of Ohio’s ongoing corruption scandal. Bradford said, “There’s simply no guardrails or safeguards against any of the abuses that Ohio citizens or customers have suffered in the last five or six years, which is pretty breathtaking.” Lyman said, “You’d think after that fiasco the legislature would be a little more cautious.”
HB 434 passed in the Ohio House at the end of March 2022. No hearings have been scheduled yet in the Ohio Senate’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee.