From Watts Up With That?

By Charles Rotter

A quiet energy revolution is underway in the heart of West Texas. Abilene, a small town on the edge of the Permian Basin—America’s largest oil-producing region—is now home to the first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) under construction in the United States. In a moment laced with irony and historical significance, the energy stronghold known for oil and gas is pivoting, not away from its roots, but toward a bold expansion into nuclear power. And not just any nuclear, but advanced molten salt technology, designed to redefine safety, scalability, and reliability in power generation.

This project, outlined in Ed Ireland’s Substack post, is more than a technical novelty. It represents a critical litmus test for the future of American energy policy, offering a real-world alternative to the centralized planning disasters of Net Zero dogma. Instead of subsidized solar farms and wind turbines cluttering up the grid with unreliable power, we are seeing investment flow into nuclear innovation that operates on real physics and genuine potential.

As Ireland explains:

“A small West Texas town on the east edge of the Permian Basin, Abilene, Texas, has become the epicenter of a groundbreaking development in the United States’ energy landscape by building the nation’s first Small Modular Reactor (SMR).”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

In September 2024, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its first construction permit for a research reactor in decades, giving the green light to Abilene Christian University (ACU) to begin building the SMR on its campus. Andrea Veil, NRC’s director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said:

“This is the first research reactor project we’ve approved for construction in decades, and the staff successfully worked with ACU to resolve several technical issues with this novel design.”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

That kind of bureaucratic clarity and execution is practically unheard of in the sluggish world of regulatory politics—a refreshing development, even if long overdue.

SMRs like the one being built in Abilene are fundamentally different from the massive, billion-dollar nuclear plants of the past. According to the post:

“SMRs are compact, factory-built systems designed to produce between 50 and 300 megawatts of electricity—enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Their modular design allows for faster construction, lower upfront costs, and enhanced safety features.”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

What makes the Abilene project unique is its focus on molten salt technology. The design features passive safety systems—meaning if something goes wrong, it shuts itself down without needing human intervention or external power. In a world obsessed with “climate resilience,” that sounds like a genuinely useful feature.

In contrast to the typical parade of government grants and green subsidies, this SMR project is being bankrolled the old-fashioned way: through private capital, particularly from the oil patch itself. Ed Ireland writes:

“The initial funding for the Abilene SMR project came from wealthy West Texas oilmen. Natura’s founder and longtime Texas oilman, Douglas Robison, donated over $30 million to ACU to create the advanced nuclear lab.”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

That’s right—oilmen, not climate activists, are leading the charge for nuclear. Why? Because they understand energy and risk, unlike the bureaucrats trying to force-feed us inefficient wind and solar under the guise of sustainability.

The research backbone of this project is impressive. The team is not just tinkering in a lab—they’re backed by the NEXT Research Alliance, which includes heavyweights like the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Georgia Tech. This alliance has secured a $30.5 million research agreement to support licensing and infrastructure.

In a country that has talked itself into believing that green jobs and wind farms are our future, this project is a refreshing case of energy realism:

“After years of hype about SMRs reviving nuclear power in the US, it is encouraging to see a project finally being built.”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

Indeed, and it’s not just being built—it’s being built well, privately, and with a clear mission: to provide reliable, scalable, and safe power without the delusions of utopian carbon accounting.

The greatest irony—gently noted by Ireland—is that this innovation is happening in the shadow of the Permian Basin:

“The whiff of irony is that the first SMR in the US is being developed in the backyard of the largest oil and gas field in the US… But if production in the Permian Basin ever starts declining… the region now has a backup plan—being the SMR capital of the world!”

https://edireland.substack.com/p/the-first-smr-small-modular-reactor

This isn’t about replacing oil or bowing to climate alarmism. It’s about building redundancy and resilience—principles sorely lacking in the top-down vision of energy policy emanating from the climate summit circuit.

If anything, the Abilene SMR represents a throwback to American ingenuity and a potential pivot toward energy pluralism: oil, gas, and nuclear working in concert—not competition—to meet the needs of a nation that still runs on power, not press releases.

In the final analysis, this is a project to celebrate—not because it checks some ideological box, but because it works. It’s funded privately, regulated rationally, and constructed in a community that understands energy. That, in today’s climate of technocratic fantasy, is a rare and welcome development.

H/T Paul Homewood