First application for a new U.S. nuclear reactor in thirty years

What with rising oil prices and worries about climate change, there is a reneweed interest in nuclear power. Princeton, New Jersey-based power producer NRG Energy (NRG) yesterday submitted the first application for a new nuclear reactor in the United States in nearly thirty years. NRG’s application is for two new units at its South Texas Project in Bay City. The application will be the first complete construction and operating license submitted to the government since before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said Monday that the agency expects to receive up to six more applications this year from Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy, Virignia-basedDominion Resources, Chicago, Illinois-based Exelon, and others.

Utilities see in nuclear plants an opportunity to affordably meet demand for electricity, which the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting will grow by 42 percent by 2030. High natural gas prices and the prospect of taxes or constraints on greenhouse gases are making gas- or coal-fired plants less attractive. NRG and other nuclear renaissance enthusiasts expect new reactors to come online by 2015, but a March report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) predicted the process would take closer to fifteen years to complete because of the government’s new review, testing, and approval procedures. NRG last month said it selected reactor designs from Toshiba for the two units, which are expected to generate enough power for more than 2.1 million homes when operational in 2014 and 2015.