Two Republican Wisconsin lawmakers who chair state legislative committees on energy and utilities say they want to bring more nuclear power online in Wisconsin in the coming years. To start that effort, they are calling on the Legislature to publicly support nuclear power and fusion energy.

“Their resolution, more than anything, makes a formal declaration that Wisconsin is open for business — it is open for nuclear,” said Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, who chairs the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee.

He is also working with state Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, chair of the Senate Utilities and Tourism Committee, on the effort.

In addition to the resolution, they plan to propose a nuclear siting study to identify locations around Wisconsin that make sense as sites for nuclear power plants. They also hope to bring an international nuclear summit to the state in the coming years that would help market Wisconsin for development and research opportunities, Steffen said.

He said completing a siting study could take two years off the development time for a new nuclear plant, which can take a decade or more to bring online.

Steffen said the biggest factor pushing him toward supporting nuclear power was seeing the large energy needs of Microsoft’s data center campus in Mount Pleasant. The first phase of that project is expected to use more electricity than all the homes in Dane County combined.