ARC Act of 2026

Increased Cost Certainty for Energy Projects: The program aims to increase cost certainty for capital-intensive advanced nuclear energy projects (Section 2(a)).

Financial Support for Cost Overruns: For qualifying projects where expenses exceed 120 percent of the point base estimate, the Director may make payments to the Federal Financing Bank to cover overruns (Section 2(d)(1) and 2(d)(2)(B)).

Enhanced Financing Terms: The Director is authorized to offer enhanced financing terms, including guarantees that may be up to 200 percent of the point base estimate of the Class 2 estimate (Section 2(e)(2)(A)).

Support for Military and Federal Energy Needs: The bill includes exceptions that benefit projects partnering with entities that procure energy for military installations managed by the Secretary of Defense or the General Services Administration (Section 3).

Support for National Laboratories: The bill expands benefits to projects that benefit from National Laboratories for testing, data collection, or permitting (Section 3).

Borrower Responsibility for Initial Overruns: Borrowers are held responsible for all cost overruns until the cumulative expenses of the qualifying project exceed 120 percent of the point base estimate (Section 2(d)(1)).

Strict Compliance Requirements: To qualify, projects must adhere to rigorous and complex requirements involving project delivery plans, Class 2 estimates, resource-loaded integrated project schedules, and labor surveys (Section 2(b)(12)).

Conditional Funding: Amounts in the program account are contingently obligated and depend on the borrower making progress in good faith toward financial close (Section 2(c)(4)).