Subscribe
Community
Third nuclear reactor being considered for loan guarantees
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
|
| ||
|
E-Mail This Article
A proposed third reactor at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is one of four projects being considered by the U.S. Department of Energy for a share in $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees, plant owner Constellation Energy announced Tuesday, May 19.
A spokeswoman for UniStar Nuclear Energy, a consortium of Constellation and French company EDF that is applying for permits to construct the reactor, said the company is not prepared to say much about financing at this point.
"At this point, we are not discussing specifics of the loan guarantee application itself," Maureen Brown said. "We want to allow DOE all the time and privacy it needs to carefully review our application. What I will say is we have made some public statements that the loan guarantee that we would be seeking may not be for the full 80 percent that's allowed under DOE regulations. We could supplement financing with backing from the French Export Credit Agency."
The cost of constructing the 1,600-megawatt third reactor in Lusby is expected to range between $7.2- and $9.6 billion dollars based on figures from other reactor projects, Brown said, adding that the cost is expected to fall toward the higher end of this range.
Michael Mariotte with Takoma Park-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which opposes the project, said this development is unexpected but that UniStar has a long way to go before seeing any of the guarantees.
"The problem is that the [Department of Energy] short list is likely to get even shorter before any money is given out, because those four projects include seven reactors," Mariotte said. "… Some of the other projects clearly have some things going for them that Constellation doesn't. So this is completely expected. Calvert County has always been considered — just by virtue of being one of the first to get its application in — as one of the frontrunners, so this is no big surprise. It doesn't mean they have found financing for their project yet."
