US finalizes Palisades loan; Three Mile Island to reopen
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has announced the closing of a $1.52 billion-loan guarantee to help finance the reopening of Holtec’s Palisades single-unit 800-MW pressurized water reactor.
Meanwhile, the Depart of Agriculture announced more than $1.3 billion in program awards for two rural electric cooperatives – Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy – to reduce the costs of electricity from Holtec Palisades and other clean energy sources.
The payments form part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program.
“Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and will play a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and protecting public health and the environment from its impacts,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
The plant’s restart will create or retain up to 600 high-quality jobs in the state of Michigan as well as more than 1,000 jobs during the facility’s scheduled refueling and maintenance period every 18 months, the DOE said.
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Microsoft signs PPA with TMI
U.S. utility Constellation has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft which will restart the Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 1 nuclear power station to service for the first time in five years, the company said.
TMI, the site of the worst nuclear power disaster in U.S. history after a meltdown at its Unit 2 in 1979, will have a capacity of around 835 MW, Constellation said.
The unit’s restart, which will include its renaming as the Crane Clean Energy Center, will add some 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, it said.
Microsoft will purchase power from the plant to help match the power its data centers take from the PJM interconnection grid with carbon-free energy, it said.
“Before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid, and we look forward to bringing it back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania,” said President and CEO of Constellation Joe Dominguez.
Restarting the plant will add $16 billion to the state of Pennsylvania’s GDP and generate more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes, according to a report by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council.
UK announces 4 SMR finalists
Great British Nuclear (GBN) has announced the four finalists in its search for the UK’s small modular reactor (SMR) program, including GE Hitachi, Holtec, Rolls-Royce SMR, and Westinghouse.
Six companies were initially shortlisted and were invited to submit tenders by July though EDF and NuScale did not pass through to the next stage.
The finalists will be invited to enter negotiations with GBN for the procurement process.
In August, Holtec announced that SMR-300 reactor had completed the first part of the UK Generic Design Assessment process (GDA) in just 10 months.
Rolls-Royce SMR, Britain’s only SMR company, said it was already 18 months ahead of its competitors in the regulatory approvals process and was finding interested parties throughout Europe.
“Rolls-Royce SMR has been chosen by the Czech Republic to deploy their fleet of SMRs and is in the final two in Sweden’s SMR selection process,” Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Chris Cholerton said.
“Success in the UK will further strengthen our position as the leading SMR company and ensure the UK is able to capitalise on this transformational opportunity for the domestic supply chain.”
The UK’s government plan, ‘Civil Nuclear: Roadmap to 2050’, has committed to securing investment decisions for 3-7 GW of additional nuclear capacity every five years from 2030-2044 to meet the goal of up to 24 GW new nuclear by 2050.
There has been no final number set on investment levels, but GBN Chairman Simon Bowen told Reuters Events in April that around £200 billion ($266 billion), from both public and private coffers, would be required to reach the nuclear goal.
Westinghouse, Hyundai sign AP1000 accords
Westinghouse Electric Company and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company have signed an agreement to examine the deployment opportunities of Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors in Sweden and Finland, the companies said in a joint statement.
Westinghouse will provide the design and deployment of the AP1000 while Hyundai will supply industrial and engineering services for the project, the companies said.
The agreement comes after Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall said in February it aimed to initiate new nuclear power projects at the site of its Ringhals nuclear power plant.
“For more than half a century, Westinghouse has proudly supported Vattenfall in delivering clean, safe and reliable energy from the Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant, which is based on Westinghouse design. Cooperation with Fortum would add another dimension to nuclear new build in the region," said President of Westinghouse Energy Systems Daniel Lipman.
Westinghouse signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Finish company Fortum in June 2023 to study the possibility of deploying a AP1000 or AP300 in Finland and Sweden.
By Reuters Events Nuclear