If you want energy security, you have to go nuclear.
Martin Willis, Local 13
Local 13 (Philadelphia) member Martin Willis is passionate about nuclear energy. He’s so passionate Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer appointed Willis to the Delaware Nuclear Feasibility Task Force, which was created to explore how the state can use nuclear energy to end its dependence on out-of-state energy. Willis hopes that through his appointment, he can change minds about nuclear energy and benefit his union in the process.
Delaware imports more electricity than any other state and gets most of its power from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“We’ve retired over 900 megawatts of baseload power since 2010,” Willis said. “We are literally one transmission failure away from being North Korea at night, and we have no plans to build new electric generation. It’s short sighted.”
He has specific goals for his time on the task force before it wraps up in mid-2026. One is to see Delaware become a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission State Agreement Program. When he was appointed, the first thing he noted was that Delaware is not in the program, which 40 other states have already signed onto.
That program began in 1954, when Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act. State’s rights were a big issue in the 1950s, and because not all states wanted to hand over their rights to the federal government, the commission was formed. Joining the NRC offers benefits such as increased local control over safety, faster licensing and tailored regulations for various facilities.
Willis would also like to see positive legislation passed in the Delaware Statehouse and initial steps made in the process to build a new nuclear reactor in Delaware. He said the legislature needs to change its regulatory policy because in 2006, Delaware passed deregulation laws that maintain regulated utilities can’t build their own electrical generation. That hasn’t worked out well for the state, which is dependent on out-of-state power.
There are obstacles to building new nuclear power generation, with time being a major hurdle. That’s where small nuclear reactors come into play. However, Willis is more in favor of a traditional nuclear plant as it would generate many more gigawatts than an SMR. He doesn’t think developers will look at building SMRs when they can build a gas plant for close to the same amount of money.
But building a traditional nuclear plant takes time.
“I started with CB&I in 1988,” Wills said. “We had a generation of guys who worked with engineers who only had a slide rule, and they made nuclear power plants. I don’t understand why now, with computers, we’ve only built two plants in two decades when they used to build several a year.”
Willis said the benefits of nuclear far outweigh any downsides. Nuclear creates no emissions and can offer clean hydrogen, desalination of water, direct heat and electric security. A nuclear power plant will run unabated for 18 to 24 months, unlike solar or wind energy.
“If you want energy security, you have to go nuclear,” he said, especially with the rise of bitcoin mining and AI data centers.
It’s also Boilermaker work. Willis said one large nuclear reactor can employ 2,000 Boilermakers and other trade union members for around six years. Nuclear work primarily involves fabrication, installation, maintenance and long-term operations in addition to planned turnarounds, because every year reactors must go through an 18-day outage.
“Boilermakers build the containment vessels. And if you look at Plant Vogtle, all the big heavy lifts were Boilermakers,” Willis said. “There’s so much work for Boilermakers in nuclear energy. We’ve been through this before when we thought we’d have a nuclear renaissance.”
Willis hopes the time is finally right for a nuclear rebirth. But he’s just one man doing everything in his power to help bring nuclear energy back into fashion.
“Boilermakers build America’s infrastructure,” Willis said. “There’s no way to build a power plant without Boilermakers. We’ve lost a generation of nuclear workers. If Delaware starts teaching nuclear workers how to build nuclear power plants, it could transfer to all other aspects. If I can build a nuclear power plant, I can build anything.”
