Two Illinois nuclear power plants — one of which recently avoided a premature shutdown — are getting a multi-million cash injection thanks to a federal nuclear production tax credit, owner Constellation Energy announced this week.
The roughly $800 million infusion, which Constellation unveiled in a Tuesday press release, will be used to increase the generation output of Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station and Byron Nuclear Generating Station by about 135 megawatts total. The increased wattage will be achieved by replacing the facilities’ aging main turbines with newer, high-efficiency units, the utility said.
The upgraded capacity could begin to take effect as early as 2026, Constellation forecast. The project should wrap by 2029 or so.
A spokesperson for Constellation told RadWaste Monitor via email Thursday that the megawattage increases are “approximations” and that the figure will be “finalized as part of the project development.” The new capacity will be split between four reactors, two at Braidwood and two at Byron, the spokesperson said.
Constellation Tuesday credited its new investment in part to August’s Inflation Reduction Act, which included a provision that granted tax subsidies to nuclear power operators. The law “caused Constellation to examine nuclear uprate opportunities that were canceled a decade ago due to market forces,” including those planned for Byron and Braidwood, the press release said.
Until recently, at least one of the Illinois nuclear plants slated for upgrades was facing an existential crisis. The Ogle County, Ill., Byron plant was scheduled to go offline in 2021 but was saved by a roughly $700 million state bailout signed in September 2021 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D).
“It is gratifying to see new long-term projects at our nuclear facilities getting the green light,” Constellation’s chief nuclear officer Dave Rhoades said in a statement Tuesday. “This is an exciting time for our industry as we continue our investment in the future of our plants.”
The rescue of Illinois nuclear power is rare good news for the U.S. nuclear fleet. Several plants have shuttered over the last couple of years, most recently Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which went offline in May. Despite mounting efforts to restart that facility, even one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s top officials thinks the plant is gone for good.
The Inflation Reduction Act, meanwhile, is not the federal government’s only play to prop up the U.S. nuclear fleet. The Department of Energy is preparing to open applications for the second round of its civil nuclear credits program — a roughly $6 billion program that in November bailed out California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
