State lawmakers authorized Indiana’s utilities to immediately pass along to consumers the costs to develop, or even just contemplate, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors — regardless of whether a utility ever actually constructs or operates one or not.
Small Modular Reactors were first designed mostly for military purposes to power submarines and ships with nuclear propulsion in the 1950’s, but recently, SMRs are used by technology corporations to power Data Centers.
According to Wikipedia, a Small Modular Reactor is a small Nuclear Fission Reactor, designed to be built in a factory, and shipped to operational sites for installation, and then used to power buildings or commercial operations. Many of the SMR designs use Pressurized Water Reactors, but some also include Generation IV, Thermal-Neutron Reactors, Fast-Neutron Reactors, Molten Salt and Gas-Cooled Reactor Models. Each system is described in detail here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor
All proposed SMRs use nuclear fission with designs including thermal-neutron reactors and fast-neutron reactors.
Furthermore according to iga.in.gov website this bill allows that the public utility may adjust its rates to provide for the development costs (Section 4) Here’s the link to the bill: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/424/details
The bill allows for 20%of the development costs to be paid for by a Rate Increase. (Section 6 B) and the other 80% of the costs are recovered under the public utility’s rates.
If that’s not enough, in Section 7, the bill provides that these Data Center expenses will be refunded to developers in three years or less even it the costs exceeds projected costs.
Section 9 provides financial recovery if the project is cancelled.
So in other words, Data Center Developers have no risk, whether the project succeeds or not the state of Indiana and it’s consumers will foot the bill.
Editor’s Note: This article was written in June of 2025, since then, they have changed the language to include “Technology Advancements” as well as “Economic Development,” for Data Centers that are not installing SMR’s. (Additional Article on the Four Bills The Indiana Lawmakers passed that allows for the NIPSCO Customers to Pay for Data Centers.
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“Approved Senate Bill 424 Passes the Cost of Indiana Data Centers onto Consumers” State lawmakers authorized Indiana’s utilities to immediately pass along to consumers the costs to develop, or even just contemplate, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors — regardless of whether a utility ever actually constructs or operates one or not. Small Modular Reactors…
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