New Jersey Nuclear Status
New Jersey stepped closer to allowing more in-state nuclear power as Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Wednesday signed legislation to lift restrictions on handling radioactive waste.
NJ drops radioactive waste rule to drive nuclear plant construction
The just passed pro nuclear revisions to the New Jersey Coastal Area Facility Review Act are a welcomed step toward providing reliable and affordable electricity in the state. The bill removed a 1973 ban on nuclear waste storage in New Jersey. The non-revised act assumed New Jersey legislators and governor knew more about nuclear waste than the NRC.
While this bill deserves congratulations, it does not make it easy to build nuclear plants in the state, there are numerous other obstacles which can prevent construction. These obstacles must be removed or reduced to permit new nuclear plants. Chat GPT and AlexAI provide insight into the additional legislative work required to promote nuclear plant construction in the state.
Simply, the battle to build a nuclear plant in New Jersey has only begun but an important obstacle has fallen.
Most important additional reforms: (Chat GPT)
- Fix radioactive material transport restrictions (population-density ban)
- Clarify or exempt nuclear from hazardous waste siting laws
- Streamline duplicative state vs. NRC regulatory requirements
- Create expedited siting/permitting pathways (especially coastal)
- Finalize financing and rate-recovery frameworks
Reforms – AlexAI
The key principle is simple: nuclear should be regulated for **demonstrable, significant, reasonably preventable harms**—not for speculative fears or anti-development obstruction. I’ve (Alex Epstein) argued that nuclear overregulation has made it roughly **10 times more expensive** than it needs to be.
Here are the main New Jersey targets:
– **Eliminate any remaining state-level spent-fuel restrictions**, especially for small modular reactors. Some proposed New Jersey legislation reportedly still says operators may not store spent fuel or high-level waste on site. That is irrational if the same state just recognized that **safe storage**—especially dry-cask storage under Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards—is a legitimate path.
– **Stop duplicative permitting.** If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has primary authority over reactor safety, New Jersey should not layer on open-ended state reviews of radiation risk, reactor design, or waste handling unless the state can show a clear, unique, evidence-based benefit.
– **Streamline Coastal Area Facility Review Act and land-use reviews.** Limit review to concrete impacts on human health, property, and genuine wildlife concerns—not aesthetic objections or generalized anti-nuclear activism.
– **Limit litigation and standing.** Activists should not be able to delay projects for years based on speculative or ideological complaints.
– **Pre-site reactors at existing industrial and nuclear sites.** Salem and other heavy-industrial locations should get an expedited path.
– **Reject preferences for unreliable electricity.** If New Jersey keeps rigging the grid and subsidy system toward solar and wind plus batteries, nuclear will remain disadvantaged even after legal barriers are lifted.
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