Assembly Republican members toured the headquarters of Holtec, a global leader in nuclear energy, and are throwing their support behind the company’s plans to build Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) at the former Oyster Creek plant.

Assemblymen Alex Sauickie, Christian Barranco and Paul Kanitra, members of the GOP Energy Task Force and the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee, visited Holtec’s Krishna P. Singh Technology Campus in Camden on Wednesday with other lawmakers on the committee. 

“Nuclear is safe, reliable, efficient and carbon-free. New Jersey needs to focus its energy on getting small modular reactors up and running and forget Big Wind. Nuclear is the solution to meet our power supply needs in a very cost-effective way. The infrastructure at Oyster Creek already exists. Holtec is now looking for the state’s support to advance their plans and we stand prepared to champion the future of the site,” Sauickie said. 

Holtec, the largest builder of nuclear reactors in the country, told lawmakers it wants to repurpose Oyster Creek, which ceased operations in 2018. It hopes to build four SMRs at the site. The company is currently building the nation’s first SMR and recommissioning a nuclear plant in Palisades, Michigan – also a first.  

“New Jersey is poised to be at the forefront of a very exciting technology that will not only reimagine Oyster Creek, but double its former capacity. Four SMRs would allow for redundancy, so if one needs maintenance, the others remain online. SMRs are a smart and dependable clean energy investment,” Barranco said. 

In 2022, roughly 44% of the energy generated in New Jersey came from nuclear power while renewable sources like solar only supplied about 8%.

“It’s a travesty that Oyster Creek was ever decommissioned in the first place, never having a chance to reach its full potential, but Holtec has presented a vision that brings back nuclear energy with modern SMRs. It will create hundreds of jobs for Ocean County residents and bring everyone’s energy bills down,” Kanitra said. “It would take 1,800 wind turbines spinning to equal the power of just one nuclear reactor. We need to put our support behind clean nuclear power if we are going to solve the energy crisis created by state Democrat’s Don Quixote-esque quest for renewables.”