PIERRE, (KCCR) — One of four issue memorandum prepared for the South Dakota Legislature’s Executive Board focused on South Dakota’s history with nuclear power. A Senate Concurrent Resolution passed by last year’s legislature directed the E-Board to establish a summer study on nuclear power. That study was never established but an issue memo on nuclear power was. Legislative Attorney Melanie Dumdei says regulation of nuclear power starts at the federal level…
A number of steps would follow that to give states that authority, which is a requirement for having a nuclear plant. The Pathfinder plant was a nuclear plant near Sioux Falls for a brief time in the 1960’s. Senator Jack Kolbeck asked if any such agreement may already be in place…
Northwestern Energy in February told the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission its evaluating whether it should build a nuclear plant in the state. The investor-owned utility would be looking to build a plant with a capacity of 80 to 320 megawatts at an estimated cost of one-point-two to one-point-six billion dollars depending on size. The plant would help Northwestern fill the gap in base-load generation created by the decommissioning of fossil fuel energy facilities.
