42 U.S.C. § 13493 — Commercialization of advanced light water reactor technology

(a) Certification of designs. To meet the goal in section 13492(b) of getting standardized reactor designs certified by the Commission by 1996, the Secretary had to run a 5-year program of technical and financial help to encourage developing and submitting advanced light water reactor designs that the Secretary judges could be certified by the end of fiscal year 1996. (b) First-of-a-kind engineering. The Secretary had to run a program of federal financial and technical help for the "first-of-a-kind" engineering design of standardized commercial nuclear power plants that were, as of October 24, 1992, part of the Department of Energy's certification program for advanced light water reactor designs. To qualify for this help, an entity had to certify to the Secretary that: (A) it (or its members) actually designs, engineers, manufactures, builds, or operates nuclear reactors; (B) it (or its members) has the money and genuinely intends to design, engineer, manufacture, build, and operate nuclear power plants in the U.S. all the way through construction and into operation; (C) its proposed design is scheduled for certification under the Department of Energy's light water reactor design certification program; and (D) at least 50 percent of the project's funding comes from non-federal sources, with a substantial share of that coming from utilities or other entities whose main purpose is producing electric power for the public. The Secretary had to give Congress a program document for each selected design, spelling out its goals, major milestones, and the work products to be delivered to the Secretary or made available for review. Before agreeing to help an entity, the Secretary had to set a cost ceiling on the federal government's contribution and report it to Congress. No entity could get help under this subsection for more than 4 years. The total money the Secretary could give out for these projects couldn't exceed $100,000,000 for fiscal years 1993 through 1997 combined.