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Nuclear Projects in DOE Loan Guarantees Cut to Final Four

The Department of Energy (DOE) has reportedly dropped Luminant’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant’s expansion planned in Texas from its list of new nuclear projects being considered for the first round of federal loan guarantee. Four projects now remain on the DOE shortlist.

New reactors at Southern Co.’s Vogtle plant in Georgia, Scana Corp.’s Summer plant in South Carolina, Constellation Energy Group’s Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland, and NRG Energy’s South Texas plant are among the projects still being considered for loan backing, Reuters reported last week. Under the loan guarantee program, the government promises to assume the companies’ debt obligations if they default on loans for the nuclear projects.

The DOE has said it has no timetable for issuing the $18.5 billion in loan guarantees. “We’re early in the application process, and we did not expect to be awarded a loan guarantee at this stage,” said Ashley Monts, a spokeswoman for Luminant told Dow Jones Newswires. Luminant had planned to use Mitsubishi’s third-generation Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor.

Sources: Reuters, DOE

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