Last week’s news that Holtec is considering four advanced small modular reactors at the former Oyster Creek site is more than another energy announcement. It is further evidence that New Jersey is finally having a serious conversation about its energy future.
If built, these reactors would generate more than twice the output of the original Oyster Creek plant while providing what New Jersey needs most: reliable, around-the-clock, zero-emission electricity.
Just as importantly, this represents the second serious zero-emission baseload generation project now under discussion in New Jersey. After years of talking about climate goals, we are finally talking about the infrastructure that we need.
Perhaps the most encouraging development is that policymakers, business leaders, labor organizations, and stakeholders are once again talking about building power generation in New Jersey. Demand is growing and will continue to grow. That reality is not changing. The choice is whether we meet that demand with in-state, zero-emission baseload generation or become increasingly dependent on imported electricity and fossil fuels.
More and more leaders are recognizing that New Jersey needs to build again—not only to strengthen energy reliability and affordability, but to create thousands of high-skilled construction, manufacturing, engineering, and operations jobs that come with major energy infrastructure projects.
For nearly 50 years, New Jersey has benefited from nuclear energy. Today, nuclear generates just under half of our state’s electricity and provides the overwhelming majority of its carbon-free baseload power. It has kept the lights on through heat waves, winter storms, and periods of extraordinary demand—all without emitting carbon.
Yet some of the loudest opposition continues to come from organizations that claim environmental protection as their mission. When the history of this era is written, it will be difficult to explain why certain environmental lobbying groups stood in the way of expanding one of the largest sources of zero-emission electricity available. At a time when policymakers routinely declare climate change an urgent priority, opposing clean, reliable nuclear generation makes little environmental, economic, or energy policy sense.
Fortunately, the conversation is changing. Across the country, nuclear plants are being restarted, advanced reactors are moving toward deployment, and policymakers are recognizing that affordability, reliability, energy security, economic growth, and decarbonization are not competing goals. They require the same solution set.
New Jersey has a choice. We can continue importing more power from outside our borders and hoping someone else builds the generation we need, or we can invest in our own future by producing more of our own reliable, zero-emission electricity while creating good-paying jobs here at home.
The question is no longer whether nuclear energy has a role in our future. The question is whether New Jersey will choose to lead or continue allowing ideology to stand in the way of reality. Holtec’s announcement is an encouraging sign that reality is beginning to win.
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