The Department of Energy is considering the California governor’s request to alter the agency’s multibillion-dollar nuclear power bailout to allow a plant in the Golden State to apply for a payout, a spokesperson said this week.
DOE is “currently reviewing” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) May 23 letter to the agency asking it to loosen restrictions on its roughly $6 billion nuclear credits program, a spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Tuesday.
“DOE is weighing input received from stakeholders to inform the structure, requirements, and other aspects of the application process for future award cycles,” the spokesperson said.
Newsom wants California’s Diablo Canyon plant on the list of nuclear power facilities eligible for a bailout under DOE’s first round of credits, made available as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed in November. In particular, the governor asked the agency to undo a restriction in its April guidelines preventing nuclear plants that use a certain ratemaking scheme from bidding on credits.
The DOE spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of Newsom’s request.
November’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided DOE with $6 billion in cash to be given out over five years to financially struggling power plants at a rate of roughly $1.2 billion annually.
DOE on May 16 extended the deadline for its first round of credits to July 5. The agency has said that the first cycle will be limited to nuclear plants that are facing imminent closure. Current guidelines also prevent nuclear power plants that use a rate collection scheme called cost-of-service regulation from applying for a federal credit — Diablo Canyon is one such facility.
Future cycles will “include a wider range of circumstances,” the DOE spokesperson said Tuesday.
Diablo Canyon, located in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., is slated to go offline in 2025. Plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in April selected Orano USA to handle spent fuel management at the site once it goes dark.
PG&E told RadWaste Monitor last week that the utility is “still assessing whether and how Diablo Canyon fits into the funding opportunity” should California decide it wants to keep the plant online “as an option for continued generation of clean baseload energy.”
