Or the nuclear elements thereof, anyway. This was written for NEI’s member newsletter, Nuclear Energy Overview, and provides a fairly thorough overview of the nuclear elements of this year’s budget request.
This is just the beginning of the annual process, with the House and Senate due to hold many hearings, grouse about this or that, and vote for more or less money requested by the administration. DOE is not immune from this process, though we wonder whether the nuclear element will not be seen as pleasing to a fairly wide swath of Congress folk. As always, time will tell.
You can pick up a pdf of the budget request here if you want to follow along.
This is original reporting.
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The DOE budget proposal for 2011 requests a tripling of its loan guarantee authority for new nuclear power plants, from $18.4 billion to $54 billion.
At the same time, the budget zeroes out the Yucca Mountain used fuel repository project, as the department expects to pull the license application within the month. DOE on Feb. 1 filed a motion with NRC’s licensing board to suspend licensing review for the project.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the increased loan guarantee authority would provide assistance to seven to 10 nuclear power plant projects.
The industry welcomed the increase and highlighted the potential for job creation. “These loan guarantees will serve as a catalyst to accelerate construction of new nuclear plants,” said Marvin Fertel, NEI’s president and CEO, “creating thousands of high-paying, long-term jobs in the process. By supporting new reactors, loan guarantees also will reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing capability for nuclear energy components.”
The loan guarantee program empowers the energy secretary to provide loan guarantees for up to 80 percent of the cost of “innovative technologies” that “avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.”
The guarantees are not an actual appropriation and, therefore, do not represent an outlay of taxpayer dollars when the clean-energy projects are successfully completed. In fact, recipients will be charged a percentage fee. The guarantees are designed to boost investor confidence and allow worthy projects to move ahead with financing on more reasonable terms that ultimately will lower the overall cost of electricity generated by those projects.
Chu said the department “is working hard to restart the nuclear energy industry,” with loan guarantees intended to demonstrate to funding agencies that nuclear energy plants can be built without cost or schedule overruns. He said the government would not need to issue further loan guarantees after the first projects go on line, as they will demonstrate the economic feasibility of funding nuclear energy plants.
While the overall program covers a range of energy projects, it now provides $18.5 billion specifically for nuclear energy projects. DOE has not yet issued any loan guarantees under the program.
Chu also announced that DOE requested no funds in fiscal 2011 for the Yucca Mountain repository program, on direction from the administration to withdraw its license application from the NRC for a construction permit. According to the budget request, “The administration has determined that Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is not a workable option for a nuclear waste repository and will discontinue its program to construct a repository at the mountain in 2010.”
Chu said that stopping all work on the repository does not abrogate any aspect of the government’s obligations to safely manage used nuclear fuel and radioactive waste under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as “the act only requires a path going forward.” He added that last week’s announcement of a blue ribbon commission to explore alternatives to Yucca Mountain “represents that path.”
Other notable budget items:
- A reorganization of budget line items, with some projects such as the Generation IV advanced reactor program zeroed out and others included in new categories such as nuclear energy enabling technologies and reactor concepts research and development.
- The new reactor concepts research and development program would explore ways to extend the life of nuclear energy plants and to study the potential embodied in small, nuclear reactors and of next generation plants to generate process heat for industrial or other uses.
- Nuclear energy enabling technology, another new line item, would focus on potentially transformative technologies in the areas of reactors, fuel cycle approaches and reducing proliferation.
- Nuclear Power 2010, an effort by government and industry to develop a new, faster licensing procedure for new nuclear plants has been zeroed out due to “successful completion.”
- Cuts were made in funding for the Idaho National Labs from $173 million to $162.5 million to reflect the completion of several projects, although the lab received $4 million to process EBR-II used nuclear fuel.
- Re-Energyse, a new program to encourage students to pursue careers in science, engineering and entrepreneurship related to clean energy, would replace the similar Integrated University Program.
- A new International Nuclear Energy Cooperation program within the Office of Nuclear Energy would support the department’s international engagements and other commitments relevant to civilian nuclear energy.
- A grant of $45 million would go to uranium enrichment company USEC while the company prepares to submit a new loan guarantee application for its American Centrifuge project in Ohio.
Comments
Uh, oh. Bureaucrat-ese alert. "Path", and especially "path going foward" is bureaucratic jargon for deny, delay, and kick the can down the road. The DOE is in clear violation of a federal law (NWPA). Anyone who knows anything about government knows that a "blue ribbon commission" serves only two purposes. The first is to run out the clock. The second is to provide political cover ("Look, see, we're DOING SOMETHING, we have all these GREAT MINDS working on the problem."). Bah! Bunch of lousy, inept cowards, they are.
Even if, during the site characterization phase, which has now passed, the Secretary of Energy had determined the Yucca Mounain site to be unsuitable for a repository, he would have to report to Congress within six months with his recommendations for further actions. However, only Congress can decide the "path going forward," because only Congress has legislative authority.
Abandoning the site and replacing the licensing effort with a blue-ribbon panel, after the licensing phase has begun, to provide recommendations two years from now is a clear violation of the act.
DOE is saying it wants NRC to withdraw the application "with prejudice," so that it cannot be resubmitted. I don't know how that would work legally, and am not certain it would. It's not like a criminal charge, where double jeopardy attaches.
The main constraint that the NWPA places on the NRC is that the commission has to complete the license review within three years of the submittal.
The bottom line is, someone has to step in and stop this nonsense, whether it is the Congress or the USSC or whoever. The NWPA is still on the books. It hasn't been repealed, it hasn't been amended in any way that allows the DOE to unilaterally abandon the designated repository site based only on political considerations and replace it with a sham "Blue Ribbon Commission". There is nothing in the NWPA that allows for that. Either the laws passed by Congress mean something, or they don't. If they do, then someone has to step up and say this crap is illegal, and do something about it. If not, the whole process is irrelevant and we may as well do away with it.
Actually, the much larger threat to being able to resubmit the license application is that the government is about to be sued for failing to adhere to its own laws. The DOJ is very likely to lose these lawsuits, which means there will be almost no money left in the nuclear waste fund to pay for the licensing process and no money left to pay for the repository.
Congress passes the laws, but it is the responsibility of the Executive Branch (starting with the President) to enforce them. The President is answerable to Congress in so much as Congress has the power of impeachment, but ultimately, the President is answerable to the people.
I expect that these lawsuits, if successful as I expect them to be, will be a huge embarrassment for the Obama administration. Don't be surprised if Obama's political enemies seize upon this issue as the lawsuits go forth.
The lawsuits would be moot if the DOE would follow the law and continue the process of getting a repository online. Lacking that, we should get our money back.