DOE - Office of Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Power Deployment Scorecard

Powering Future Decades

February 9, 2009
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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, one industry request for conditional agreement to date, no contract 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Two Notices of Intent to Request Conditional Agreement received in 2008 have been withdrawn or deferred.
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 early 2009.

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.

Fifteen power companies have submitted applications, requesting a total of $93 billion in loans to be guaranteed, by the Part II deadline of 12/19/08. The applications cover 10 sites with a total of 16 reactors, capable of providing 22 GW in generating capacity.
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 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.