Oregon’s very own NuScale Power, a nuclear company developing small-modular reactors (SMRs), has officially received a final safety evaluation report from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NuScale is the first company to be issued a report for an SMR by the Commission, and receiving one serves as a technical review and design approval for the new technology.
This is a major milestone for NuScale which originally submitted its certification application in 2016, and puts it one step closer to installing its first 720-megawatt plant in Idaho Falls.
This is also good news for the Northwest, which is in need of reliable baseload energy in the future based on predictions that we’ll experience insufficient energy resources by the mid-2020s.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council estimates the earliest commercial online date for an SMR plant in our region is 2030. The Council forecasts its potential maximum build-out to be 3,420-megawatts, produced by five reference plants.
However, no new SMR plant can currently be built in Oregon due to a moratorium passed by voters in 1980. Legislation was considered in 2017 to carve-out an exception for SMRs, however, it never made it out of House Committee after passing through the Senate.
Recent blackouts in California and upcoming coal-plant retirements in the Northwest have established unique circumstances that call for additional reliable resources. Oregon officials should reintroduce legislation that would allow us to take advantage of NuScale’s new nuclear technology.

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