West Virginia fast-tracks bill to end decades-old nuclear energy ban

"House Speaker Roger Hanshaw says West Virginia is ready for a sliver of its energy production to be nuclear.

'One of the things we know is technology evolves, and as technology evolves new opportunities come on the horizon that didn’t exist a generation or two ago,' Hanshaw said today on MetroNews’ 'Talkline.'

'Nuclear is certainly one of those. We’ve in an environment now in which technology is evolving really quickly, and many of the companies that are expanding their facilities around the world are looking at how they’ll generate power, not just in the next decade but in the next century.'

Hanshaw cited small modular reactors, which can generate power at just a fraction of the size of a conventional nuclear power reactor.

'We want to make sure we’re positioned as the state to let companies who want to take advantage of that evolving technology to be able to do so,' Hanshaw said.