It’s hard to imagine nuclear power coming to the Hoosier State, especially when you’re driving past the rusted grain bins and sun-bleached silos dotting the landscape of southern Indiana. But if a very small coalition of lawmakers, engineers, and energy companies get their way, that quiet hum beneath the cornfields could one day be nuclear—not metaphorically, but literally.
As it stands, Indiana has zero operational nuclear power plants. What it does have is potential—and for the first time in a very long time (remember Marble Hill, the most expensive nuclear construction project ever abandoned?), that word’s being used with policy and legislative teeth behind it.
A State on the Cusp
This past spring, Gov. Mike Braun signed Senate Enrolled Act 424 into law, giving public utilities the ability to recoup some preconstruction costs for small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs. Think of them as nuclear’s younger cousin—more compact, potentially safer (?), and engineered to be built off-site and slotted in-place like a giant yet an energy-efficient Lego erector set.
Senator Eric Koch of Bedford—who’s become the de facto voice of Indiana’s new nuclear ambitions—says we’re positioned to lead. And he’s not necessarily wrong. There’s a manufacturing base already here. There are coal plants closing. And there are towns within our own area—that are slightly scarred by the slow retreat of fossil fuels—wondering what the next 30 years might hold.
A New Kind of Coal Town?
In fact, Fort Wayne-based Indiana Michigan Power is applying for a federal grant to study putting an SMR at its Rockport coal plant site. In a way, it feels like a poetic pivot: where once came smoke and soot, per environmentalist, now might come the seemingly clean silence of split atoms.
But poetry aside, not everyone’s buying it.
Groups like the Citizens Action Coalition argue the law prioritizes tech companies’ growing demand for power over consumers’ wallets. Ratepayers, they say, are being asked to shoulder the vast majority of the financial risk of a speculative industry with a 10-year runway—at best. In fact, SEA 424 requires Indiana utility customers to bear most all of the costs and risks associated with the design, engineering, planning, and permitting of SMRs, even if the utility does not seek approval to build the reactor — or cancels the project (remember Marble Hill?).
Gov. Braun himself sounded uncertain back in February, warning that private companies, not just ratepayers, would need to carry the cost. “Some of that they’ll have to absorb through what is called capitalism,” he said in his typical dry tone. He’s never been Mr. Excitement, has he?
Still, the legislature pushed forward. Alongside SEA 424, a companion bill (SEA 423) and a tax credit measure (HEA 1007) have created a policy scaffolding for SMR development. The state is placing its bet. Now, it just waits.
Built Here, Not Just Installed Here
Interestingly, one of the state’s strongest nuclear cards in this bet may not be its vast developable acreage or empty coal plants, but a facility in Mount Vernon. BWXT, a longtime manufacturer of naval nuclear reactor components, already builds the heavy-duty parts needed for military-grade fission. According to a Purdue study commissioned by the state, the company is exploring whether it could pivot to build the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 reactor vessel—a key piece in the SMR “Lego”-esque puzzle.
But even that would require a brand-new expansion totaling thousands of square feet added and many millions of dollars. It’s a lot of money and toil. But as any Hoosier knows, real infrastructure—like real trust—takes years to build and seconds to lose. (Have I mentioned Marble Hill?)
What This Means for Towns Like Ours
For now, this is mostly paper: legislative bills, grants, studies, and dreams.
But if the nuclear age does return—smaller, cleaner, quieter—it will need to take root somewhere. Somewhere with open space, legacy utility infrastructure, and a labor force that knows how to build things. That could mean this area. After all, the legislator driving a lot of this is from Bedford. And, due to Crane, this area does have one of the highest concentration of engineers per capita in the nation. Maybe Rockport, as mentioned before? My Spidey senses think — after all, those were gained by being bitten by a radioactive spider, right? — there’s going to be a whole lot of NIMBY (aka Not In My Back Yard!).
There’s no rush, though. Nuclear doesn’t necessarily sprint, per se. It’s the kind of technology that lives on timelines longer than most news cycles allow. Its waste too.
Still, when lawmakers say Indiana is positioned to lead, it’s worth asking: lead where? Into cheaper power? Into corporate tax incentives? Into more economic dependence on energy giants with the deep pockets to develop these plants?
Or maybe—just maybe—into a more positive future that makes better use of what we already have: land, people, grit, and a deep familiarity with rebuilding from the ashes of other industry. The old way powered our grandparents’ lives. What powers our grandchildren’s may just be forming—quietly—in the background or eventually in a cornfield someday.