nuclear-news

Vogtle nuclear plant loan guarantee negotiations drag on slowly

Nuclear Energy Institute chief finds Vogtle loan guarantee delays troubling  December 12, 2012  By Matthew Bandyk    The U.S. nuclear industry is hoping the Vogtle nuclear plant project in Georgia will spur the construction of other nuclear reactors this decade.

But continued delays in negotiations between Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power Co., the lead developer of the Vogtle project, and the U.S. Department of Energy over the final terms of a federal loan guarantee are creating troubling implications for the program, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Marvin Fertel said Dec. 12…..

in Dec. 12, Southern reached an agreement with the DOE to extend the loan guarantee offer until June 30, 2013, giving more time for the negotiations to proceed, according to company spokesman Mark Williams.

The $8.3 billion loan guarantee was awarded in February 2010, and the offer had been set to expire earlier this year but was extended until the end of 2012 as the two parties had not yet come to agreement. This new extension ensures that the DOE and Southern will keep discussing well into 2013 issues such as what kind of credit subsidy fee the company will be charged…. The Vogtle project is particularly important for the nuclear industry, Fertel said, because it is using new construction techniques that could convince other companies that nuclear plants are easier to build than has been previously thought. If the Vogtle construction goes smoothly, “we can take time to market from 10 years to seven years,” he said. ….

December 18, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA