"The federal loan guarantee program and other aid for new nuclear plants may not be enough to induce Constellation Energy to build a third reactor at its Calvert Cliffs site, 40 miles south of Washington, the company’s president and chief executive said on Thursday.

In a partnership with Electricité de France, Constellation wants to build a reactor designed by the French nuclear conglomerate Areva called the EPR. One EPR plant is under construction in Olkiluoto, Finland, and another at Flamanville, France.

But negotiations over loan guarantees between the Department of Energy and the partnership, called Unistar, have dragged on.

Congress authorized a loan guarantee program for new reactors in 2005 and financed it in 2007, but so far only one such guarantee has been made, for a twin-unit reactor project near Waynesboro, Ga., that is being built by the Southern Company and two partner utilities. The loan guarantee for that project is for 70 percent of the amount that Southern is borrowing."

Matthew L. Wald reports for the New York Times September 23, 2010.
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