Law360 Quotes Alan Lovett on Nuclear Plant Restarts

Alan Lovett, partner in Balch’s Birmingham office and member of the firm’s Nuclear Energy Practice, was quoted in a Law360 article discussing the challenges and opportunities surrounding efforts to restart decommissioned nuclear plants in the U.S. amid growing electricity demand.

In the article published August 29, 2025, Alan emphasized the complexity of licensing and regulatory requirements involved in recommissioning.

"You're talking about thousands and thousands of pages of licensing documents," Law360 quoted Alan as saying. "There's lots of stuff that'll be the same for every plant — you'll have to reinstate your security and emergency planning requirements ahead of going back to an operating reactor status — but then there's going to be a lot of stuff that's unique to every plant."

Alan also highlighted the importance of interconnection rights in supporting restart efforts.

"If you can make use of your prior interconnection rights without having to start from scratch in your particular area, that reduces barriers to restart, and it likely helps preserve the [recommissioning] schedule," he was quoted as saying.

Addressing supply chain and equipment concerns, Alan noted the need for early planning:

"A lot of the really significant, especially safety-related, pieces of equipment ... they may be custom-fabricated with multiyear lead times," he explained. "If you're going to have to replace a significant piece of equipment, that's something you need to know as early in the process as possible. And frankly, it could be a deal-breaker."

Finally, Alan underscored workforce readiness as a critical factor for nuclear restarts.

"If you make a decision [to restart] and it's a really quick schedule, getting everyone relicensed has the potential to be a critical path," he said. "Because it takes such a long time, it's going to be a really high-priority item to be nailed down."

Alan counsels electric utility companies who own a diverse mix of generation resources in all manner of commercial and regulatory matters. A key focus area of his practice involves serving owners and operators of nuclear generation facilities. Alan’s nuclear practice spans new plant construction, operating fleet matters, decommissioning, recommissioning, and nuclear transactions, including expertise in commercial and regulatory matters.