​Nathaniel Eames, a structural engineer, lives in Portland.

Every winter, Maine households play a game of roulette with global energy markets. We watch geopolitical tensions rise half a world away, knowing the fallout will land directly on our heating oil bills.

We’ve made admirable strides to break this cycle. Our rapid adoption of heat pumps proves that Mainers are ready for change. But as we electrify our heating, we are trading a dependence on foreign oil for a reliance on a regional electric grid that faces massive demand during our coldest months.

To survive a deep winter freeze without fossil fuels, our regional grid requires what engineers call firm power, meaning steady, reliable electricity that operates independent of the weather. Wind, solar and efficiency are vital pieces of the puzzle, but they cannot carry the baseline load alone during an extended sub-zero snap.

If we want true energy independence for New England, Maine needs to start looking further ahead. That means taking a serious look at Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs).

SMRs are a fundamentally different approach to clean energy. Unlike the massive, capital-intensive nuclear plants of the 20th century, modern SMRs are compact, factory-built and scaled to meet precise regional needs.

New England is actually home to some of the foremost technical experts and research institutions leading the global development of this very technology. Furthermore, this isn’t a financial burden Maine has to shoulder alone. Any serious investment in advanced, firm power would be planned and financed across the entire New England grid coalition to secure our shared stability.

To even put this option on the table, however, we have to confront a ghost from our regulatory past. Under current Maine law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is legally forbidden from even certifying a new nuclear project unless a permanent, federally approved high-level waste disposal facility is operational. Written in 1987, this rule tethers Maine’s energy strategy to a federal repository debate that has been gridlocked in Washington for 40 years.

Leaving this decades-old restriction untouched doesn’t protect us. It just ignores 40 years of massive leaps in material science. The 1987 law assumes legacy reactor engineering, but modern SMRs have actually removed the traditional waste and safety problems out of the equation.

First, advanced SMRs utilize “walk-away” passive safety systems. They rely on basic physics, such as natural convection and gravity, to cool themselves indefinitely if power is lost. This completely eliminates the risk of a runaway meltdown without requiring active electricity or human intervention.

Second, they are engineered for extreme fuel efficiency. Utilizing ultra-dense, ceramic-armored fuels, many advanced designs are completely sealed at the factory and run for up to 30 years without ever needing to be opened or refueled. Because they extract nearly all the available energy from their fuel, the actual physical byproduct left behind is microscopic compared to older generations of power.

A centralized federal repository is no longer a technical bottleneck for safe operations. By treating a distant federal burial ground as an immediate prerequisite, our laws force state regulators to ignore 21st-century engineering.

Additionally, amending this specific statutory restriction is just a common-sense first step. It doesn’t instantly greenlight a project, nor does it bypass public input. If a project were ever proposed, it would still have to clear every single standard roadblock, including rigorous environmental reviews, local zoning and extensive public approval.

Repealing this 1987 catch-22 simply unties the hands of our state regulators. It allows the PUC to evaluate modern energy infrastructure based on contemporary safety and regional grid needs, rather than forcing them to default to a blanket ban from a bygone era. Maine should at least be at the table, evaluating our options for the next century rather than waiting to buy the expensive leftovers.