Move follows appeal by owner of California’s Diablo Canyon
The US Department of Energy is extending the application deadline for a second time for a $6bn programme aimed at keeping power plants open by two months, it announced, days after California's biggest power utility asked for more time.
Power utility PG&E Corp asked the DOE for a 75-day extension to the civil nuclear credit (CNC) programme deadline to apply for federal funds that could keep its Diablo Canyon nuclear power station in California open. Two reactors at Diablo Canyon are scheduled to shut down in 2024 and 2025.
The DOE also amended the CNC programme’s guidance, revising the eligibility criteria that nuclear reactors “not recover more than 50 percent of its costs from cost-of-service regulation or regulated contracts”, which could affect the eligibility of reactors applying in the first round of funds awarded, a press release said, without elaborating.
“The amended CNC Guidance supports the intent of president Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law to keep the reactors online that sustain local economies and today provide our nation’s single largest source of carbon-free electricity,” assistant secretary for nuclear energy Kathryn Huff said.
The first round of awards prioritises reactors that have announced their intention to cease operations. Future CNC award cycles – to be launched in the first quarter of 2023 – will not be limited to nuclear reactors that have publicly announced intentions to close down.
This is the second deadline extension for the CNC programme, In May, the DOE announced an extension to the deadline for applications and sealed bid submissions under the programme. The deadline for the first award cycle, originally set for earlier mid-May, was extended to 5 July.
The CNC programme is included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan measure signed by president Joe Biden last November, in recognition of the current reactor fleet’s environmental and economic benefits, such as providing 52 percent of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.
In May, California governor Gavin Newsom said he was open to extending production at Diablo Canyon – the only nuclear station in the state – beyond its planned August 2025 retirement.
Mr Newsom said he would pursue federal funds available to support nuclear plants as part of Mr Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In February, the board of supervisors of California’s San Luis Obispo County – location of Diablo Canyon– supports delaying the closure of the facility and voted 3-1 to ask Mr Newsom “to work with PG&E to ensure that they have access to all the permits necessary to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant operational”.
The board’s vote came after hearing testimony from one of the authors of a recent MIT/Stanford University study that made the case for keeping the plant open until 2035.
