New Jersey has become the sixth US state in the last decade*, and the second this year, to fully repeal its moratorium on building new nuclear power stations.

Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation to remove a key permitting hurdle that created a de facto ban on the construction of new reactors until the US established a permanent solution for radioactive spent fuel.

Sherrill said one law required any new projects to point to a method of disposal that, quite literally, does not exist. She said it was written in the 1970s, tied to a technological requirement that made sense then but not today.