Nuclear Power Deployment Scorecard

Powering Future Decades

December 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.
• One Request for a Conditional Agreement was received in September 2008.
• Two Notices of Intent to Request Conditional Agreement received in 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 may be issued by end of 2008.

Nuclear Energy Facility Loan Guarantees: Congress provided DOE with authority to issue $20.5 billion in guaranteed loans. Such authority expires at the end of fiscal year 2009.

• 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 cover 14 sites with a total of 21 reactors.
• Based on the review of Part I applications, DOE notified sponsors of their project's rank in the field of 14.
• The deadline for submitting Part II applications for power projects remains 12/19/08.
• Two companies submitted $4 billion in loan guarantee applications for two front-end fuel cycle facilities, and followed up with Part II applications by the 12/2/08 deadline.
• 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.