A Constellation-EDF venture announced Tuesday it will turn over operation of the Ginna, Nine Mile Point and Calvert Cliffs nuclear plants to Exelon.
The plants had been licensed to Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, in which the French company will still hold a 49.99 percent stake. Exelon merged with Constellation last year, and Exelon will assume the licenses for the plants' five reactors over the next six to nine months. According to an Exelon release, terms of the transfer included a $400 million loan from Exelon to fund a special dividend for EDF. The latter company will have the option to sell its stake in CENG to Exelon between 2016 and 2022.
EDF executives quoted by the Financial Times said prospects for the company's investments in the United States had shifted sharply with the recent abundance of shale gas in the power generation market. Among its earlier plans, EDF had proposed investment in a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs through a company called UniStar, although that effort was stalled by federal requirements on domestic ownership of nuclear plants. While EDF indicated it would shift its generation focus in the U.S. to renewables, the company remains involved in efforts to build new reactors at Hinkley Point in the UK, pending power price negotiations.