Manchin exploring ‘federal nuclear market’ to keep reactors online

Sen. Joe Manchin (D.WV), said that he’s exploring the possibility of a federal program that would allow ratepayers to share in the costs of maintaining the nation’s fleet of nuclear reactors. Many of them have retired due to increased operating costs.

Congress has invested billions of dollar in preserving the legacy nuclear fleet. However, Manchin indicated Thursday that the dollars are not unlimited and that there would not be an appetite to keep providing subsidies to the sector.

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“In merchant markets, no matter what we do and how much more money we invest into it, they’re not going to be able to survive and compete against the renewables and everything else,” Manchin spoke at a nuclear-focused event held by the Third Way, a center-left think-tank.

Manchin proposed a solution to the problem of policy experts and nuclear professionals that would create an environment conducive to a “federal nuclear market” and could be used to sustain nuclear plants at minimal cost to ratepayers. This is true even for states that do not have nuclear power plants.

“If we had an overall — to where all of us in our rate base is paying a certain percentage for our nuclear fleet, it’d be minuscule. But I can tell you it would make the difference of trying to get states to pick up the slack or having federal government continue to have to subsidize,” He stated.

“If we don’t do something, there’s going to be people saying, why are we doing it? Why do we keep subsidizing nuclear?” He stated.

Atom energy advocates believe it is the best way to combat climate change because it is free of carbon. “dispatchable,” This allows power plant operators the ability to adapt electricity generation to meet demand.

Dispatchability differentiates between nuclear and renewable wind or solar sources. These generate carbon-free electricity but can be affected by weather conditions. While wind and solar are on the rise, many installations don’t have enough battery storage.

Utilities have begun to retire reactors as they are getting older and in some cases less competitive with natural gas and solar generating sources.

According to Energy Information Administration, six units of nuclear-generating units that had a total output of 4,736 megawatts were retired by April 2022.

Although more retirements were planned than ever, government intervention has been a success in saving reactors. This includes in Illinois where $700 million was approved by the government in 2021 for assistance to keep two nuclear-powered plants online.

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Separately, Democrats and Republicans worked to stop retirements in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This bipartisan legislation authorized $6 billion for a Civil Nuclear Credit Program to support nuclear reactors that are unable to compete with cheaper, more heavily subsidized sources of energy in wholesale markets.

The nation’s nuclear power generation accounts for around 20%. Manchin stated that he would like to see it rise to 25% to 30% using next-generation reactor technologies. Congress is also funding this effort.