Nuclear for power production has now been added to the list of “clean” sources, alongside wind, solar and geothermal, after Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday signed a proposal that signaled Colorado policymakers’ changing attitude toward this energy source.

“The governor was excited to sign this bipartisan bill yesterday that passed with significant votes in both chambers to continue on our progress toward all solutions to meet our clean energy goals,” said a spokesperson for Polis. “To be clear, this bill does not move forward any particular nuclear energy project in Colorado, nor have any been proposed as part of resource planning by any utility.”

Advocates of nuclear power said the three-year effort by legislators and nuclear power proponents to pass what ultimately became House Bill 25-1040 would put Colorado on the path to meeting the state’s goal of 100% “carbon free” energy by 2040.

Critics, on the other hand, argued that including nuclear power under the legal definition of clean energy would divert money away from other “renewable” sources. They called nuclear energy a “false solution” and a “risky, expensive, and unsustainable technology.”

Since Xcel Energy shut down the state’s first and only nuclear power reactor in 1989, there has been little interest shown in building such power plants here — until now.

According to experts, putting nuclear power on the clean energy list opens up funding and permitting options that were generally foreclosed in the past.

This is not to say that any power providers have plans to build a nuclear reactor, but Xcel Energy Colorado’s chief is at least open-minded about it.

In an October 2022 interview, Xcel Energy Colorado CEO Robert Kenney said, “I think it’s a technology that we, as a nation, have to look at.”

Kenney was specifically referring to small modular reactors, which have the benefit of, among other things, mobility and cost.

“It’s a technology I think bears looking into. I would have to really understand how it fits in specifically into our resource mix here in Colorado — what the political climate is for it,” he said.

Not everyone is pleased with the new law.

Some argued it would take money away from wind, solar and geothermal sources and pointed to the issue of expended fuel rods from nuclear plants and other forms of radioactive waste.

To legislate that nuclear is “clean energy is no different than legislating that raw sewage is clean water or smog is clean air,” Nichols said. “It’s abhorrent.”