“Arizona needs more power to power the future. This bill is a great example of Arizona’s innovation to drive economic development” -Jordan Rose, Rose Law Group founder and president, who represents data centers
By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | AZ Mirror
A Republican measure that would waive certain state regulations to allow data centers and other large industrial energy users to build small nuclear reactors in rural Arizona inched closer to coming law Tuesday.
House Majority Leader Michael Carbone told the Senate Natural Resources Committee on March 11 that his legislation is about removing state regulation — and beating foreign adversaries who are doing similar things. Multiple other countries have begun to pursue the technology, including allies and adversaries to the United States. Carbone gave his colleagues in the House a similar pitch last month.
His House Bill 2774 would do that by letting large industrial energy users place a “small modular nuclear reactor” in their facility without having to get a certificate of environmental compatibility. And in rural Arizona, they would also be exempt from local zoning restrictions.
Nuclear reactor advocacy groups have raised more than $1.5 billion to push for these style of reactors amid the ongoing AI boom. Generative artificial intelligence, like Chat GPT, is generally only possible with large amounts of power and the use of data centers.
