Fewer than five days remain before the Department of Energy is expected to publish instructions for financially-troubled nuclear power plant operators looking to bid on a multi-billion-dollar federal assistance package.
DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy “anticipates opening a combined certification and sealed bid auction process” on its civil nuclear credits program April 18 by first publishing a guidance document for would-be participants, the agency said in a statement dated April 6. That framework will define eligibility requirements to receive credits, identify what bidders need to provide to DOE and lay out the administrative structure of the program, the agency said.
The application period will last 30 days, DOE said, and the agency should certify applicants and announce preliminary awardees “expeditiously thereafter.” This first award cycle will “prioritize and be limited to reactors that are approaching near term closure,” the agency said. A second cycle is planned for the first half of the 2023 fiscal year.
As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Joe Biden signed in November, DOE received around $6 billion over five years to allocate to nuclear plants that post a net operating loss. The agency has suggested doling out about $1.2 billion per year over that period.
Meanwhile, as it prepares to auction the credits off, DOE has received about 100 responses to a Feb. 15 request for information about the agency’s proposed process for evaluating bids. The agency suggested that operators demonstrate, among other criteria, that they’re losing money on their plants and that closing the sites will contribute negatively to carbon emissions.
While financial help from the feds is good news for some nuclear plants, it’s too little, too late for others.
Michigan’s Palisades plant is counting down its final weeks in operation — its single reactor is set to go offline in May. Diablo Canyon in California may have also missed its window, as operator Pacific Gas & Electric announced last week that it had contracted Orano USA subsidiary TN Americas to handle spent fuel management at the plant when its two reactors shut down in 2024 and 2025.
