The Department of Energy is hoping to give economically-troubled nuclear power plant operators a little certainty by speeding delivery of subsidies recently signed into law as part of this year’s bipartisan infrastructure plan, a DOE official said this week at an industry conference.
“[I]t can take a little while for tax credits to kick in, [so] this civil nuclear credit program is here to sort of kind of rapidly bring some of those plants some certainty for the next few years,” DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said at the American Nuclear Society’s annual winter meeting Wednesday. “It’s going to ideally give very rapid turnaround support to those at risk plants.”
President Joe Biden last month opened up roughly $6 billion in federal funds for a civil nuclear credits program when he signed his bipartisan infrastructure package into law. The bill directs DOE to establish a bidding process for allocating that cash to plant operators over a five-year period. The agency has said such a process could take weeks or months to hammer out.
“[I]t’s going to take a lot of accountability and ensuring that we are doing the math right, calculating risks, [and] allocating the appropriate amount and quantity of credits,” Huff said Wednesday.
Huff also noted that the credits program is a “near-term activity” and not a permanent solution for the nuclear fleet’s financial woes. Despite that, she said that the bailouts would be vital to keeping existing plants humming along.
“This credit is going to be really instrumental in ensuring that my first priority in this office is achieved, which is to keep existing nuclear plants running,” Huff said. “That is so important.”
