Cranberry Township, Pa.-based Westinghouse Electric Company announced a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) on the American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans.
The program will enable investment into nuclear supply chains and jumpstart deployment of new nuclear generation across the U.S. The EDF said it had agreed to the conditional commitment of $17.5 billion in obligated funds to finance the purchase of long-lead time items for up to 10 Westinghouse AP1000 units. The AP1000 is the only fully designed and licensed advanced commercial reactor operating in the U.S., officials said. Advance purchase of long-lead time items is expected to accelerate project deployment timelines by up to three years.
“America has always won when it thinks big and builds for the future. If we want to lead in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and the industries that will define the next century – we need more American baseload energy. This means building industrialized nuclear power at fleet scale, creating long-term economic growth, thousands of high-quality jobs, strengthening supply chains and revitalizing communities,” Westinghouse CEO Dan Sumner said. “We thank the Administration and the Department of Energy for their commitment and leadership on this strategic initiative.”
According to CNBC, the loans will not go directly to Westinghouse, a DOE loan office official said, but will go to five special purpose vehicles. Westinghouse and its partners have to contribute nearly $1 billion in equity to each SPV to unlock the loan money, the official told CNBC. Westinghouse said it will partner with up to five eligible utilities or energy companies to procure long-lead time items for projects with two reactors each. The company also said it has signed Letters of Intent with seven potential partners with identified sites.
The conditional commitment from EDF is a signal of the DOE’s intent to provide a loan to finance the projects, but the DOE and Westinghouse must satisfy technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before entering into definitive financing documents.