by TOM DAVIS

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This week, I filed a joint resolution in the South Carolina Senate – S. 936 – that may prove to be among the most consequential actions the General Assembly takes this session. The resolution directs a unified state response to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s January 28th Request for Information seeking state partners to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, integrated environments spanning the full civilian nuclear value chain, from fuel production and reactor construction to advanced manufacturing and workforce development.

This is not a routine federal solicitation. It is one of the most significant economic and national security initiatives the federal government has launched in a generation, and South Carolina cannot afford to treat it as anything less.

Think of a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus as a nuclear industrial city — a large, self-contained complex where every step of the nuclear energy process happens under one roof, in one place, on one expanse of land: raw material processing, fuel fabrication, reactor operation, energy generation, waste management, and the research and manufacturing infrastructure that ties it all together. The Savannah River Site, with its nearly 310 square miles of federal land in Aiken and Barnwell counties, is purpose-built for exactly this kind of mission. It already houses world-class nuclear facilities, a national laboratory, and decades of operational infrastructure. There is no site in America more ready.

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The case for South Carolina is not aspirational. It is grounded in facts no other state can match. South Carolina ranks first in the nation in nuclear employment concentration. We produce approximately fifty percent of the nation’s nuclear fuel. Nuclear energy generates roughly half of our electricity, one of the highest shares in the country.

For decades, the Savannah River Site and Savannah River National Laboratory have served as trusted stewards of the nation’s most sensitive nuclear assets, building an operational record that speaks for itself. Our research universities, technical colleges, registered apprenticeship programs, and veteran workforce have produced the deep bench of nuclear engineers, fuel cycle specialists, and precision manufacturers that a program of this scale demands.

Other states can point to nuclear history. South Carolina can point to nuclear infrastructure, and to something no other prospective host state can offer: we are actively engaging in a process to complete the construction of two nuclear reactors right now.

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When the General Assembly passed Act 73 of 2025, directing Santee Cooper to solicit competitive bids for the restart and completion of VC Summer Units 2 and 3, skeptics questioned whether the state was serious. Santee Cooper’s subsequent acceptance of Brookfield Renewable Partners’ bid answered that question decisively.

Those reactors would add 2,200 megawatts of carbon-free baseload generating capacity to our grid. More importantly for purposes of this federal competition, they demonstrate South Carolina’s unique capacity to support the full nuclear lifecycle — not in theory, but in practice, in real time.

The Department of Energy is looking for state partners ready to lead. South Carolina is not standing at the starting line waiting for the gun. We are already running.

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The benefits of designation would be profound and lasting. High-wage employment opportunities would flow not only to our urban centers but to rural communities near our existing federal and industrial assets. Billions in private capital investment would follow, accelerating growth in advanced manufacturing across the state. Our research universities would gain federal partnerships and resources that attract talent for generations. The economic ripple effects would extend into communities that have long needed exactly this kind of sustained, high-quality investment.

The South Carolina Department of Commerce has already convened a Steering Committee drawing on state agencies, research universities, Savannah River National Laboratory, private industry, utilities, and workforce institutions. South Carolina is organized, aligned, and moving. What the state response needs now is the General Assembly’s formal expression of support, a clear signal to Washington that our commitment is institutional, not merely administrative.

That is what today’s resolution provides. I urge my colleagues to pass it without delay. This opportunity will not wait, and neither should we.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Tom Davis represents Beaufort and Jasper counties in the South Carolina Senate.

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