WEC Energy Group and the owner of the closed nuclear power plant in Kewaunee County are looking to bring nuclear energy generation back to the site after more than a decade.
EnergySolutions, a Utah-based nuclear power company, announced in May it is working with WEC Energy Group to explore building a new nuclear power facility on the site of the closed Kewaunee Power Station.
If the project moves forward, it would be the second active nuclear power plant in Wisconsin and the first new facility to open since 1974. Manitowoc County’s Point Beach Nuclear Plant is the only one still active.
More: Clean Wisconsin says data center power usage could exceed all homes in state combined
New nuclear power is seen as a potential way to address booming demand for electricity, driven in part by the creation of data centers such as the massive Microsoft facility under construction in Racine County. Several others have been proposed in other parts of the state, including Port Washington.
The Kewaunee announcement follows increased bipartisan interest in nuclear energy at the state level. This summer, Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill requiring a study to identify potential nuclear development and fusion sites in Wisconsin.
EnergySolutions CEO and President Ken Robuck told WPR in May the company also offered to buy more land adjacent to the Kewaunee plant to potentially accommodate a larger energy center.
Here’s what to know about the project:
Where do the plans currently stand?
The project plan is still in its very early stages, WEC Energy Group spokesperson Brendan Conway said.
The utility, parent company of We Energies, and EnergySolutions are conducting “initial planning and scoping activities,” a process that can take around 18 months to two years, Conway said.
“This process determines if the site is appropriate for a nuclear plant and what kind of reactor technology would be best for the site,” Conway added.
What reactor technology the new plant would use determines how much power it would produce and how much it would cost to build.
Once initial plans are complete, the companies must submit their proposal to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and then the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees civilian nuclear energy safety.
The Public Service Commission review process for power plants takes between six months and a year depending on the size and complexity of the proposal, according to the agency.
The NRC’s permitting process will likely take years, Conway said.
When could the plant come online?
Robuck said in May he hoped to get the plant running as early as 2038, according to WPR.
If the project moves forward, construction could begin in the early 2030s and complete later in the decade, Conway said.
What is the current state of nuclear power in Wisconsin?
Point Beach Nuclear Plant, located along Lake Michigan in the Manitowoc County town of Two Creeks, is the only active nuclear power plant in the state. The first of the plant’s two reactors went online in 1970 and the second in 1972.
The plant accounted for around 15% of Wisconsin’s net energy generation in 2023. The licenses for the reactors are set to expire in 2030 and 2033, but the plant’s owners filed for a renewal with the NRC to keep them open another 20 years.
Two other Wisconsin nuclear power plants have since been shut down. A boiling water reactor near La Crosse, built in 1967, closed in 1991 because its small size made it economically unviable.
The plant on the Kewaunee site operated from 1974 to 2013. Major decommissioning and dismantlement started in 2022.
Why did the Kewaunee plant close?
Former owner Dominion Resources Inc. announced in 2012 it would shutter the Kewaunee plant by 2013, citing the falling price of natural gas, according to previous Journal Sentinel reporting. The plant produced 556 megawatts at the time of its closure, enough to power around 140,000 homes.
The domestic fracking boom drove the price of natural gas down and wholesale energy prices down with it, leaving the plant uneconomical, said Tom Content, executive director of the Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board. The emergence of wind power in the Midwest also contributed to its closure.
“This decision was based purely on economics,” then-Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell II said in 2012. “Dominion was not able to move forward with our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take advantage of economies of scale.”
Despite advancements in nuclear energy technology, nuclear power remains expensive relative to other sources, Content said. Nuclear power plants are incredibly expensive to build and come with fuel costs that renewable energies like wind and solar don’t have.
“It’s not a cost-competitive technology yet,” Content said.
Why is a new plant being discussed now?
Wisconsin’s energy demand has risen since the plant’s closure and is expected to jump significantly as energy-intensive projects like data centers make their way to the state.
Additionally, Wisconsin consumes around six times more energy than it produces, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The new plant would allow the state to meet the rising demand without having to purchase that energy from out-of-state, Conway said.
“Adding new nuclear generation in Wisconsin would provide carbon-free, 24/7 energy to help meet the demand — while also providing critical energy security to the state,” Conway said.
At the federal level, the Trump administration has pushed for nuclear reactors to be deployed to support the high energy needs of data centers powering artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May establishing an 18-month deadline to approve applications for constructing nuclear reactors among other measures to expedite nuclear power projects.
What could a new nuclear plant mean for consumers?
Content’s main concern with any potential nuclear power project in the state is how much added costs customers may have to bear if it runs over budget.
Electric customers in Georgia paid billions in cost overruns in 2023 after the two Plant Vogtle nuclear reactors went $17 billion over budget. That project cost $35 billion and ran seven years behind schedule.
“We don’t want Wisconsin to be the one to experience those cost overruns,” Content said.
In Wisconsin, Content said recent solar projects have also led to cost overruns, leading the Public Service Commission to open an investigation into how to handle the problem in utility construction projects.
If the Kewaunee project moves forward, its application to the Public Serivce Commission must include plant costs if the plant will generate more than 100 megawatts of power.
Is nuclear power being considered in other Midwest states?
Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich.
On the other side of Lake Michigan, the Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan will reopen after closing in 2022.
Power operations at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert Township has reached the “final phase,” officials announced Aug. 26.
Last October, the U.S. closed a $1.52 billion loan to resurrect Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant. Then President Joe Biden’s administration has called for a tripling of U.S. nuclear power capacity as U.S. power demand surges, according to a Reuters story.
Related: Palisades restart has entered ‘final phase’ — here’s when to expect power generation
How many nuclear plants are operating in the Midwest?
As a whole, there are 95 licensed–to-operate nuclear plants in the U.S.
Here’s a breakdown of the number of plants operating in 2025 in Midwest states:
Rhonda Clark contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Closed Kewaunee nuclear plant site may come back online in 2030s