Thursday, October 2, 2014

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OFFERS LOANS FOR DEVELOPMENT IN NUCLEAR ENERGY

By TONI ELLINGTON 

On September 30, 2014, the Department of Energy announced that it would be awarding up to $12.6 billion in loan guarantees to companies that would engage in nuclear energy projects.  The program is part of an effort to restart the nuclear power industry, which has not seen a new nuclear power plant or nuclear reactor built in the United States in at least 35 years.

The program announced by the Department of Energy would provide loan guarantees to support the construction of new nuclear energy projects.  The program is authorized under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, 22 U.S.C. §§16511-16514.  The goal of the program is to provide loan guarantees to support the construction of innovative nuclear energy and front-end nuclear energy projects in the United States that “reduce, avoid, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions.”  Projects generally should fall under one of four key technological areas of interest, as follows:   1) advanced nuclear reactors; 2) small modular reactors; 3) upgrades and updates to existing facilities; or 4) front-end nuclear projects, which are projects dealing with the preparation of nuclear fuel.

A 30-day comment period for the solicitation was also announced.  The draft solicitation is available at http://www.energy.gov/.

For information, contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.

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