Energy Department Initiative to Add Low-Cost Nuclear Capacity
A new Department of Energy initiative will help nuclear firms “uprate” their reactors (Reuters, subscription).
What’s going on: “The Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE) … will benefit leading nuclear plant operators including Constellation Energy, Vistra, Duke Energy, Southern Company and Entergy, because the program’s main focus is on uprates, the process of increasing the maximum capacity of active nuclear plants.”
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved 171 uprates since the 1970s, “resulting in a gain of around 8 [gigawatts] as of January 2022.”
Why it’s important: UPRISE aims to increase nuclear capacity by 2.5 GW by 2027 and by a total of 5 GW by 2029.
- That’s the equivalent of “adding five new nuclear reactors to the grid without the multibillion-dollar cost of new construction.”
- UPRISE is intended to help further the administration’s goal of quadrupling U.S. nuclear output to 400 GW by 2050.
What it entails: The DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing will use its $289 billion in loan authority to offer eligible nuclear projects up to 80% financing at “attractive interest rates.”
- It will also hold workshops to facilitate agreements between power plant owners and end users.
How it helps: “UPRISE is designed to unlock private capital by mitigating the financial risks that have historically sidelined utility uprate projects, according to the DOE.”