JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock Save for later Print Download Share Entergy CEO Drew Marsh told investors this week the US utility is evaluating new nuclear deployment at its Grand Gulf nuclear plant in Mississippi with potential partners and customers. Entergy's key issue when thinking about this is "construction risk," said Marsh, alongside demand: "We need a customer to want to pay for that." Given data center demand and other large load growth across the US, Xcel President Bob Frenzel separately told an Apr. 24 earnings call that "you could see folks looking at even large-scale nuclear facilities again." That's in part because it's "years out into the next decade" before small modular reactors "become likely." Meanwhile, the Trump Administration's pick to helm nuclear policy at the Department of Energy, Theodore Garrish, advanced through a Senate committee nomination hearing this week, vowing continued support for new nuclear deployments and domestic uranium enrichment, and promising to support loan financing for nuclear energy despite major White House cuts to staff.
