Last April, Gov. Jared Polis signed into law the first step toward the much-needed and long-overdue return of clean, renewable nuclear power to Colorado. The legislation redefined nuclear energy as a form of clean energy under the law, a seemingly innocuous, semantic change — with potentially far-reaching expectations.

The state’s only nuclear power plant to date, the Fort Saint Vrain facility north of Denver, was decommissioned back in 1992 after its outdated infrastructure and technology had made it too expensive to run. But a new wave of nuclear power that is making a comeback employs a new approach that largely moots old concerns about cost.

House Bill 25-1040 represented a noteworthy act with bipartisan accord on what used to be a divisive and partisan issue. With Democratic and Republican sponsors passing a measure signed by Colorado’s self-styled green governor, the bill reflects the makings of a new consensus on the most promising kind of renewable energy.

The policymakers are focused on next-generation, small-scale “modular” nuclear reactors, which are not like the 98 full-size reactors still in service across the U.S. The average modular reactor is less than 10% the size of reactors now driving electric power plants. Modular reactor components can be assembled in factories and moved to their final destinations.

HB25-1040 makes modular projects eligible for special clean-energy project financing and allows utilities to include their nuclear power generation as part of their overall clean-energy portfolio required under state law. That’s a good start on the path to restoring nuclear power to Colorado, and as a report in The Gazette on Thursday illustrated, elected leaders around the West are comparing notes with nuclear energy experts and exploring reimplementation in earnest.

A Western Governors Association workshop this week in Idaho brought together Idaho’s Gov. Brad Little, Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox and a host of federal regulators, utility executives, investors and supply-chain managers — to look at next steps. As noted in The Gazette’s report, the experts discussed the wide-ranging challenges ahead — notably, securing enough domestically mined uranium — but agreed that demand for zero-emission nuclear is pressing.

John Wagner, director of the Idaho National Laboratory, told conferees today’s push differs from earlier nuclear revivals. Past optimism was undermined by weak economics underlying older nuclear power technology and political hesitation due to largely unfounded fears. This time, he said, private-sector demand is real. States like Utah, Idaho — and Colorado — must meet the mounting needs of hyper-scale data centers and artificial intelligence.

Those and other burgeoning segments of the tech sector are energy thirsty. They need much more grid capacity — and much more power generation. The new reactors are the ticket.

“We have companies approaching INL weekly asking how they can secure nuclear power,” Wagner said.

Utah’s Cox agreed the need for more power is urgent.

“We have to significantly increase the amount of energy, and we have to do it very, very, very quickly,” he said. He contended the era of “energy transition” has given way to “energy addition,” where natural gas, as well, must be kept online until firm, carbon-free sources are available.

Nuclear power seems to check the boxes. It’s clean, endlessly renewable and now, efficient enough to be cost effective. Let’s move ahead.