The Department of Energy announced this week that it was seeking stakeholder input on an auction process for doling out several billion dollars in federal tax credits for financially-troubled nuclear power plants, according to a press release.
DOE on Friday unveiled its request for information (RFI) on its civil nuclear credits program, a $6 billion package President Joe Biden signed into law in November alongside a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, according to a pre-publication Federal Register notice.
The agency is seeking input on the process by which it will auction off those credits — the law directs DOE to, by March, establish a process for allocating funds to nuclear power plant operators that post a net operating loss.
The pre-publication notice details the process DOE has put together for auctions.
So far, the agency has proposed “establish[ing] a review process,” for credit applications, “using a review panel comprised of DOE personnel.” Among the proposed criteria to qualify for an award, plant operators would need to demonstrate that their reactors operate in a competitive market, that the plant would otherwise shut down for economic reasons and that closure would result in an increase in carbon emissions, the notice said. Priority would be given to applicants that use uranium fuel sources originating from the U.S., DOE said.
The tax credits would be handed out in increments of around $1.2 billion annually over the course of a four-year period, the notice said. After that time is up, plant operators can reapply for additional federal cash to be allocated through September 2031, “subject to the availability of funds,” DOE said.
Once the RFI goes live, interested stakeholders will have 30 days to register their comments with the agency, DOE said.
The new RFI represents one of the government’s strongest actions so far in the Joe Biden administration shore up the civilian nuclear power fleet, which is shrinking much faster than it is growing. Michigan’s Palisades plant was next on the chopping block at deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor, scheduled to go dark some time in the spring.
In 2021, three nuclear plants were slated to shut down. Only one of those, New York’s Indian Point plant, actually went offline. The Byron and Dresden plants, both located in Illinois, were saved by a last-minute bailout from Springfield in September.
