Indiana Michigan Power will soon retire the coal-burning units at its Rockport electric generating plant. The 2,600-megawatt plant is a source of energy, jobs and tax revenue in the southern Indiana community along the Ohio River.
Losing it would be “devastating,” Spencer County Commissioner Jim Seiler said.
“I mean, if they completely close down, that would just kill our schools and our whole area,” he said.
That’s not the plan. I&M, owned by utility giant AEP, wants state regulatory approval for a 1,520-megawatt natural gas-burning facility at the Rockport site. But it’s also evaluating the location for nuclear generation, seeking federal grants to support the approval process for a small modular reactor.
Gov. Mike Braun applauded the effort just days after taking office early last year. Spencer County commissioners, including Seiler, offered their support in a 2024 letter.
“We have to have energy, and it just kind of looks like to me that the nuclear thing — nuclear and gas are the way to go,” Seiler said.
I&M’s efforts could offer a glimpse into what the Braun administration envisions for its oft-mentioned “all-of-the-above approach” to energy and affordability, which is increasingly propping up arguments for nuclear development.
The latest of its efforts is the Indiana Advanced Nuclear Ready Community program, announced last week by Braun, which aims to introduce counties and regions to nuclear energy and attract developers.
The program highlights small modular reactors, like the one AEP is exploring. While they produce about a third of the electricity of a traditional nuclear reactor, they’re smaller and can be more affordable to construct, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
But no small modular reactor project has ever been completed in the United States, according to the World Nuclear Association. Just one is under construction in Tennessee, with several more planned across the country.
A 2025 state-ordered study found small modular reactors could be “a viable option for 24/7 carbon-free electricity in Indiana,” while offering more pay for workers than at coal plants. The Indiana Department of Energy Development also lauds potential economic impact from the reactors.
“Indiana’s retiring coal fleet represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to anchor next-generation energy, jobs, and tax base in communities that need it most,” the department states on the program’s website.
Participating communities can achieve three tiers requiring progressively more commitment. The earlier requirements are about educating the public about the form of energy, while later conditions include applications and more specific planning with utilities for nuclear development.
It’s those earlier commitments, about informing citizens about what nuclear could mean, that David Bottorff, executive director of the Association of Indiana Counties, thinks are especially valuable.
He said developers have previously announced large industrial projects before the public could even learn of or give feedback on them. That includes data centers, which have led nearly a third of Indiana counties to place moratoriums or other restrictions on their development until officials can learn more.
The Indiana Advanced Nuclear Ready Community program “is better coordination than trying to force the development in their community that is going to create pushback,” Bottorff said.
Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition, similarly sees the program as a way to get ahead of local backlash, much like that against data centers and wind and solar farm projects. But he said the push for nuclear power is out of a false belief that renewable energy sources can’t provide all the state’s electricity needs.
“It’s resistance to real clean energy — renewable energy — and hanging onto that sort of romantic relationship we have with big projects and base-load power plants,” Olson said.
He thinks nuclear development projects will only drive up costs for consumers, pointing to small modular reactor construction still being far off and how past nuclear work has floundered in development or come in over budget.
Olson said the latest state program is a continuation of “lots of PR, lots of propaganda, lots of talking points,” by the nuclear energy industry, “but little in the way of delivering actual results.”
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