Philadelphia Inquirer  [Printer-friendly version]
September 7, 2007

FLOOD OF NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS EXPECTED

By Duncan Mansfield, The Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Federal regulators, girding for explosive growth
in the nuclear power industry, say they are weeks away from an
anticipated flood of license applications for new reactors not seen
since the 1970s.

"There are a lot of challenges for new construction," said Bill
Borchardt, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's newly
created Office of New Reactors. "And a lot of challenges for the NRC."

The independent regulatory agency expects to receive new fast-tracked
combined construction and operating license applications for as many
as 29 reactors at 20 sites, most in the South, over the next three
years.

The first could come as early as Oct. 1, the start of the federal
fiscal year.

"We have never had to do this many reviews at one time in parallel
with an office that has only existed for less than 12 months,"
Borchardt said Thursday at the NRC's reactor training center in
Chattanooga.

"Nobody thinks this is going to be easy."

Borchardt has hired more than 400 inspectors, engineers and examiners
to handle the load. Ultimately, the power companies will be billed for
their time. The office is nearly as large as the NRC unit overseeing
the country's existing 104 commercial reactor fleet.

Growing electricity demand, energy supply security concerns and
greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are driving a nuclear
revival in this country after a three-decade chill. Improvements in
nuclear operating experience and efficiency have also played a role,
Borchardt said.

Some of the power companies expected to file soon for new reactors
include the Tennessee Valley Authority, as part of the NuStart group
for its Bellefonte site in Alabama; Duke Energy, for its Lee Station
in South Carolina; NRG Energy, for its South Texas Project; Dominion
Energy, for the North Anna site in Virginia; Southern Co., for its
Vogtle plant in Georgia; and South Carolina Electric & Gas, for its
Summer station.

Most want to begin construction in five to six years and be online by
2015 to 2020, Borchardt said.

All are looking to use advanced reactor designs, which the NRC is
working to approve in advance in standardized form to hurry along the
process.

Two of five most likely designs already have been certified by the
NRC. The others are either under review or expected to be submitted by
year's end.

The new reactors are expected to have significant safety improvements
over current boiling-water and pressurized-water designs in today's
U.S. reactors.

They will have multiple independent systems to cool reactor cores in
an emergency, multiple backup power systems, digital control rooms and
more passive systems to open and close valves automatically by gravity
or water flow, to reduce human error.

The reactors also will have enhanced post-9/11 security features,
including hardened concrete exteriors that can better withstand the
shock of events such as an airplane strike.

And to keep reactors on the fast track, most will incorporate modular
construction with large parts , the reactor vessel, for instance ,
made in other locations, such as Japan. Some large components already
are being ordered, Borchardt said.

Using standardized design and modular construction "allows General
Electric to (be able) to claim that they can construct from first
concrete to reactor critical , an entire power plant , in
approximately 36 months," NRC reactor technology instructor Richard
DeVercelly said.

That's about how long it took to build two new reactors in Japan that
use an advanced boiling-water design that the NRC has certified for
U.S. power companies, he said.

By comparison, TVA took five years alone to rebuild and restart its
oldest reactor at the Browns Ferry station in Alabama, which returned
to service this year.

"It is pretty clear that the plants will be built more rapidly (and)
are going to make extensive use of modular construction," Borchardt
said. "One of the great lessons from the 1960s and 1970s is that you
do a much better job if you can design them before you start building
them. (That's true) whether you are building a house or anything
else."

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