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Sources & Methodology

Illinois Nuclear Infrastructure Map — March 2026

Nuclear Generation Data

Operating Reactors

Source: NRC Reactor Information Finder + World Nuclear Association Reactor Database
Access date: 2026-03-27
Scope: All 6 operating nuclear generating stations in Illinois (11 units)
Fields: Location (lat/lng), unit count, reactor type, design, net capacity (MWe), commercial operation date, license expiration date, NRC docket number, ISFSI status, RTO membership
Net capacity: Post-uprate values from WNA. May differ slightly from NRC thermal ratings.
License dates: Current as of March 2026, including subsequent renewals granted December 2025 for Dresden 2&3 and Clinton 1.
Known gaps: Uprate history not included. Capacity factors not included.

Decommissioned Sites

Source: NRC Decommissioning Status Reports, WNA Reactor Database
Access date: 2026-03-27
Scope: Zion Nuclear Power Station (2 units), Dresden Unit 1
Zion status: Site released for unrestricted use by NRC in 2023. ISFSI remains with spent fuel on site.
Dresden 1 status: SAFSTOR, pending decommissioning with Units 2&3. First privately financed nuclear plant in the US (1960).

Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI)

Source: NRC ISFSI Licensing Database, Federal Register 2022-24993
Access date: 2026-03-27
Morris Operation: GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC. NRC License SNM-2500 (Docket 72-0001). 772 metric tons stored. License renewed to 2042. Only licensed commercial away-from-reactor wet spent fuel storage facility in the US.
Zion ISFSI: Docket 72-1037. Operated by Constellation Energy Generation, LLC.
Note: Plant-site ISFSIs at all 6 operating stations are confirmed but exact cask counts and tonnage are not included.

Generation Statistics

Source: EIA-923, EIA Illinois Electricity Profile
Figure: ~99 TWh nuclear generation in 2024, representing ~53% of Illinois electricity
Note: 2024 figure from EIA Electricity Data Browser and state profiles. Figures from multiple secondary sources (Statista, EIA state analysis).

National Labs & Research

Source: DOE Office of Science, University of Illinois
Access date: 2026-03-27
Scope: Argonne National Laboratory (Lemont, IL), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Batavia, IL), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Coordinates: Campus/complex centroids from Mapcarta and latitude.to, cross-referenced with DOE facility descriptions.

Transmission Data

345kV+ Transmission Lines

Source: Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD), via ArcGIS FeatureServer
Service URL: https://services2.arcgis.com/FiaPA4ga0iQKduv3/arcgis/rest/services/US_Electric_Power_Transmission_Lines/FeatureServer
Access date: 2026-03-27
Query: VOLTAGE >= 345, spatial filter on Illinois bounding box (-91.5 to -87.5 lng, 36.97 to 42.51 lat)
Result: 415 line features with geometry (~24,400 coordinates)
Fields: Owner, voltage, voltage class, substation endpoints, status
Key owners: Commonwealth Edison (111 segments), Ameren Illinois (92), Union Electric (46), MidAmerican Energy (15)
Known gaps: Substation endpoint names not populated for all features.
Owner inference (105 segments): HIFLD attributed 105 of 415 segments as "NOT AVAILABLE" for owner. We resolved all 105 using two methods: (1) Substation matching (75 segments): other segments sharing the same named substation endpoints had known owners — the most common owner at each substation was assigned. (2) Geographic proximity (30 segments): for segments with only UNKNOWN/TAP substation names, the 5 nearest segments with known owners were used to vote on likely owner. All inferred owners are tagged with INFERRED_OWNER and OWNER_SOURCE properties to distinguish from HIFLD-sourced attributions. Breakdown: Commonwealth Edison 70, Ameren Illinois 13, NIPSCO 7, Duke Energy Indiana 6, MidAmerican Energy 3, Union Electric 3, others 3.

Transport Corridor Data

Class I Railroads

Source: USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), North American Rail Network Lines — Class I Freight Railroads View
Service URL: https://services.arcgis.com/xOi1kZaI0eWDREZv/arcgis/rest/services/NTAD_North_American_Rail_Network_Lines_Class_I_Railroads/FeatureServer
Access date: 2026-03-27
Query: STATEAB = 'IL'
Result: 4,516 segments with geometry
Carriers represented: Union Pacific (1,040), Canadian National (947), BNSF (731), Norfolk Southern (641), CSX (347), CPKC (173), plus regional/terminal carriers
Note: Includes all Class I-owned track in Illinois, including yards and sidings.

Navigable Waterways

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Waterway Network, via Esri Federal Data ArcGIS service
Service URL: https://services7.arcgis.com/n1YM8pTrFmm7L4hs/ArcGIS/rest/services/Waterway_Networks/FeatureServer/1
Access date: 2026-03-27
Query: Spatial filter on Illinois bounding box
Result: 130 waterway segments
Rivers represented: Mississippi (43 segments), Ohio (20), Illinois (18), Lake Michigan (13), Chicago River (6), Tennessee (6), Cumberland (6), Chicago Ship Canal (4), Calumet-Sag Channel (3), Kaskaskia (3), others
Note: Dataset represents navigable waterways as defined by USACE. Not all segments are rated for spent fuel cask barge transport. The Dresden/Morris and Quad Cities barge evaluations are site-specific (see DOE/IAEA Near-Site Transportation Infrastructure studies).

Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET)

Source: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), via USDOT BTS National Transportation Atlas Database
Service URL: https://services.arcgis.com/xOi1kZaI0eWDREZv/arcgis/rest/services/NTAD_Strategic_Highway_Network/FeatureServer
Access date: 2026-03-27
Query: STFIPS = 17 (Illinois FIPS code)
Result: 1,719 segments
Major routes: I-55 (284 segments), I-57 (191), I-90 (183), I-290 (146), I-74 (122), I-80 (114), I-94 (117), I-72 (79), I-39 (73), I-88 (68), I-64 (53)
Note: STRAHNET is the DOD's designated network of highways rated for strategic defense transport. Characterizing these as "nuclear transport capable" is our analytical framing; STRAHNET's official purpose is defense logistics. IDOT issues oversize/overweight permits under 625 ILCS 5/15-301 for heavy haul on these and other routes.

DOE NLIC RFI

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, "Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses" Request for Information
Published: January 28, 2026
Response deadline: April 1, 2026
SAM.gov listing: Solicitation available at sam.gov
Key coverage:
- ANS Nuclear Newswire, "DOE lays out fuel cycle goals in RFI to states" (January 2026)
- Neutron Bytes, "DOE seeks homes for the elements of the nuclear fuel cycle" (January 31, 2026)
- DOE official announcement at energy.gov

Transport Capability Statistics (Sidebar)

6,769 miles Class I rail: Association of American Railroads (AAR), "Freight Rail in Illinois" (2023 data)
1,095 navigable waterway miles: Illinois Department of Transportation, Waterway System overview
6 Class I carriers: AAR. Union Pacific, BNSF, Canadian National, Norfolk Southern, CSX, CPKC.
#2 state rail network: AAR state comparison (Texas is #1)

DOE/PNNL Nuclear Power Plant Transportation Infrastructure Evaluations

Program Overview

Program: Nuclear Power Plant Infrastructure Evaluations for Removal of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Lead: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), for DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, Office of Integrated Waste Management
Report: PNNL-30429 (April 2021; updated February 2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2172/1798213
Authors: Maheras, S.J.; Rodman, L.S.; Best, R.E.; Levin, A.; Ross, S.B.; Massaro, L.M.; Jensen, P.J.
Scope: Infrastructure evaluations of 20 NPP sites including Dresden and Morris

Dresden/Morris In-Person Site Evaluation (May 2022)

Paper: WM2023-23024, "Dresden Nuclear Power Plant and Morris ISFSI Site Infrastructure Evaluations"
Conference: 49th Annual Waste Management Conference (WM2023), Phoenix, AZ, Feb 26–Mar 2, 2023
Authors: Maheras (PNNL), Hobbs (Constellation), Walker (Constellation), Partney (GE-Hitachi), Bickford (DOE), Peoples (INL), Arvidson (CSG Midwest), Moore (FRA)
INIS: https://inis.iaea.org/records/y7p4r-wx930
Key findings cited: CN Railroad transload assessment, multimodal transport evaluation

Morris Virtual Site Evaluation (June 2020)

Paper: WM2021-21004, "GE-Hitachi Morris Operation ISFSI Virtual Site Evaluation"
Conference: 47th Annual Waste Management Conference (WM2021), Phoenix, AZ, Mar 8–12, 2021
Authors: Maheras, Rodman, Bickford, Janairo, Arvidson, McFadden, Hobbs
INIS: https://inis.iaea.org/records/5egjm-99f78
Key findings cited: First DOE drone survey of a commercial nuclear facility; Dresden Lock and Dam and barge area mapped for waterway viability

Historical Predecessor

Report: OCRWM Near Site Transportation Infrastructure (NSTI) Study (January 1991)
Author: Conroy, M.
Publisher: DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
OSTI: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5602055
Scope: All 76 reactor sites assessed for rail, road, and barge access

Note on "IAEA" Attribution

IAEA's INIS database indexes the WM conference papers, but IAEA is not a co-author or co-sponsor. The correct attribution is DOE/PNNL.

Methodology Notes

Coordinate precision: Plant and facility coordinates are to 4 decimal places (~11 meters), representing site centroids rather than individual reactor buildings.
Spatial queries: All infrastructure layers were queried using the Illinois bounding box (-91.5 to -87.5 longitude, 36.97 to 42.51 latitude), which includes some features in neighboring states near the border.
Data pipeline: Raw GeoJSON from government ArcGIS services → validated for feature count and geometry type → served directly (no transformation applied to geometry). Manual GeoJSON files (reactors, decommissioned, ISFSI, national labs) were hand-built from cited sources.
No interpolation or estimation was applied to any data. All figures are from cited sources.