Arkansas state lawmakers recently reviewed the final Arkansas Nuclear Feasibility Study, which was authorized by Act 707 of 2025. The Joint Committee on Energy reviewed the study last week.
The report concludes that developing new nuclear generation in Arkansas is both technically feasible and advisable.
The study points to rapidly growing electricity demand, driven by manufacturing, technology, and other expanding industries, and notes that Arkansas has suitable locations for new facilities.
“New nuclear is feasible and advisable in Arkansas. The state needs the energy, workable sites exist, federal support is the strongest it has been in decades, and state law needs only modest changes,” the report said.
With respect to possible sites for nuclear facilities, the study screened six candidate areas using the Electric Power Research Institute siting methodology. Transmission came first, because a site that cannot inject its power into the grid cannot host a plant regardless of its other merits.
A grid screening evaluated injection capability at the state’s 230 to 500 kilovolt nodes, treating 600 MW, about two 300 MW small modular reactor (SMR) units, as the project floor. Seismic, water, flooding, and population screens followed.
The six areas are: Flint Creek in Benton County, Arkansas Nuclear One in Pope County, Central Arkansas south of Little Rock, Southwest Arkansas near Camden, Phillips County near Helena-West Helena, and the Craighead and Mississippi County area in the northeast.
The report makes a number of recommendations including preparing sites with willing counties. “Work with counties receptive to new nuclear industry on serious siting preparation, including the siting studies and licensing that turn a candidate area into a permitted site. When nth-of-a-kind costs arrive, projects could go first to the states with permitted sites in hand.”
