Policy and licensing / Wisconsin
2025 Wisconsin Act 12: nuclear power siting study
2025 Wisconsin Act 12 creates a Public Service Commission nuclear power siting study. The date of enactment is 2 July 2025, publication is 3 July 2025, and s. 991.11 makes it effective on 4 July 2025. The study covers nuclear and fusion generation, including small modular reactors. The report date on the opened act is an LRB insert, not a calendar day. A study is not permission to build.
- Category
- Laws, rules and executive directives
- Status
- In effect
- Instrument
- statute · 2025 Wisconsin Act 12
- Issued by
- Wisconsin Legislature
- Jurisdiction
- Wisconsin
- Affects
- Siting
- In effect from
- 4 Jul 2025 · actual · day
- Expiry or completion
- None recorded
- Operative text
- 2025 Wisconsin Act 12 (2025 Wisconsin Act 12, official act page, opened 4 October 2026)
- Last checked · next review
- 2026-10-04 · 2027-01-15
Legal and geographic scope
Session law creating Wis. Stat. § 196.025(8). The Public Service Commission must study nuclear and fusion siting, including advanced nuclear reactors and small modular reactors, and may contract for the work. The opened current-code page displays the subsection heading and the definition sentence and certifies the statutes in effect on 1 October 2026. The duty list was read from the act. A study is not a certificate, and the act names no site.
Not approved or still pending
The opened act leaves the study-report date as an LRB insert, and the opened current-code page does not display a filled calendar date. No commission report, contract, or certificate was opened. The study does not approve a site. No appropriation figure is in the act.
Dated lifecycle
- 2 Jul 2025 · actual · day · Enacted — The official act states its date of enactment as 2 July 2025. It is 2025 Senate Bill 125. Enactment orders a study. It does not approve a reactor. (2025 Wisconsin Act 12)
- 3 Jul 2025 · actual · day · Published — The official act states its date of publication as 3 July 2025. (2025 Wisconsin Act 12)
- 4 Jul 2025 · actual · day · Took effect — Current s. 991.11 says an act that does not expressly prescribe its time takes effect the day after publication. This act prescribes no other effective time. The day after 3 July 2025 is 4 July 2025. The bracketed report date is a separate insert. (Wisconsin Statutes § 991.11)
Definitions in this instrument
- advanced nuclear reactor (§ 196.025(8)(a)): The subsection gives this term the meaning in 42 USC 16271(b)(1) and does not restate that federal definition. The study's duties also name small modular reactors among fission and fusion technologies.
Legal definition used by this instrument only; SMRMap's inclusion rule for SMRs is separate and unchanged.
Related instruments
Projects or designs named by the source
- None. Location in this jurisdiction does not make a project eligible for, or approved under, this measure.
Sources
- 2025 Wisconsin Act 12 (government_primary, accessed 2026-10-04)
- Wisconsin Statutes § 196.025 (government_primary, accessed 2026-10-04)
- Wisconsin Statutes § 991.11 (government_primary, accessed 2026-10-04)