Nuclear Power Deployment Scorecard

Powering Future Decades

November 5, 2008
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New Nuclear Plant Deployment
Current State of the Industry

Federal Financial Incentives

Summary: EPAct 2005 incentives are at various stages of development: two rules issued and one notice published.

Standby Support: Rule issued, no industry requests to date, no contracts issued.

• Final Rulemaking Issued August 2006.
• Published Standard Conditional Agreement September 2007.
• DOE released on-line instructions for requesting Conditional Agreement December 2007.
• Three Notices of Intent to Request Conditional Agreement received April 21, June 13, and September 18, 2008.
• Expect first DOE approval for standby support contract in 2011.

Production Tax Credits: Notice issued.

• Internal Revenue Bulletin 2006-18 published May 2006.
• Modified Guidance on Tax Credit issued by end of 2008.

Energy Facility Loan Guarantee: Final rulemaking issued. Congress provided DOE with authority to issue guarantees for up to $4 billion in loans (FY07).

• DOE issued solicitations for $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear power facilities and $2 billion for the "front end" of the nuclear fuel cycle on June 30, 2008.
• Seventeen power companies have submitted 19 applications, totaling $122 billion, by the Part I deadline of 9/29/08. The applications address 14 sites with a total of 21 reactors.
• Two companies submitted $4 billion in loan guarantee applications for two fuel cycle facilities.
• The deadline for submitting Part II due diligence information remains 12/19/08.
• As estimates of the construction costs continue to rise, the authorized amount for loan guarantees may be unable to cover the necessary number of nuclear projects needed to catalyze follow-on nuclear construction fully financed by the private sector. It will be necessary to:
• Increase the loan guarantee authority,
• Revise the Final Rule to allow inter-creditor agreements across multiple loans on one project, or
• Agree that only the actual USG exposure on partially guaranteed loans be scored against the loan guarantee authority rather than the entire loan principal.
• Nuclear power facilities solicitation is broken into two application parts that must be received by the Department by September 29, 2008 and December 19, 2008, respectively.
• Nuclear fuel cycle solicitation is also broken into two application parts that must be received by the Department by September 29, 2008 and December 2, 2008, respectively.