Operators of nuclear power plants facing impending closure now have until mid-summer to apply for a federal bailout, the Department of Energy said this week.
Just a day before the scheduled application deadline for DOE’s civil nuclear credits program, the agency announced in a Wednesday press release that it would push the due date back 47 days to July 5. As with the initial deadline, interested applicants will have until 11:59 p.m. Mountain time on the final day to submit their bids, DOE said.
Newly-minted Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said in the press release that DOE had received a request to extend the deadline, but did not say who had asked. An agency spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday on who had asked for such an extension.
“The Civil Nuclear Credit program will help the United States meet our climate goals while protecting jobs and the communities that depend on these plants,” said Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy,” Huff said.
This is the first $1.2 billion funding round for DOE’s roughly $6 billion nuclear credits program, greenlit in November under the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Under the law, the agency was directed to establish by March a process for auctioning off the credits over a five-year period. The agency has spent the last five months or so workshopping the program.
DOE has said that this funding round would be restricted to nuclear plants facing imminent closure and that future opportunities would be open to all plant operators.
So far, the agency’s bailout has at least one interested party. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in April that Lansing would seek to secure a bid for the Palisades nuclear plant, scheduled to shut down this month. Plant operator Entergy told RadWaste Monitor April 27 that it had been contacted by the state government regarding the plant “potentially operating beyond May 2022,” but said that there had been “no formal proposal” to keep Palisades online.
Meanwhile, Entergy CEO Leo Denault said April 26 that the company had been preparing to shutter Palisades since at least 2017 and that it would be a “heavy lift” to undo the plant’s sale to Holtec International for decommissioning.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) also said in April that the Golden State was considering the idea of seeking an application for credits to save the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which is slated to shut down for good by 2025. Newsom hasn’t said whether Sacramento would actually pursue such action, though.
