TVA site on list for new nuclear power plant
A consortium of utilities narrowed the potential locations to TVA’s yet unfinished Bellefonte twin reactors near Scottsboro and to a site in Mississippi operated by Entergy near Port Gibson, Miss.
The consortium emphasized that no decision had yet been made on whether to seek a license for a new plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The group is developing an application for advanced approval of the two sites, which would allow for quicker completion of the project if a go ahead is given.
The announcement by Nustart Energy Development, a consortium of eight utilities, including TVA, and two reactor manufacturers, is the latest development reflecting the intense interest by the electric power industry to build a new reactor to meet growing electricity needs.
“Our country needs these advanced nuclear plants. We must reduce our dependence on imported foreign energy,” said Marilyn Kray, president of Nustart and an executive of Exelon, the country’s largest operator of nuclear power plants.
“The Bellefonte site is a superior choice for a new nuclear plant because of the existing infrastructure and its ideal location that supports partnering opportunities with other NuStart utilities,” TVA Chairman Bill Baxter said in a statement.
TVA operates nuclear reactors at two plants in Tennessee, Watts Bar and Sequoyah, and at another one in Alabama, Browns Ferry.
No new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United States since 1973 and interest soured after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. But in recent years nuclear plants have become more efficient and more profitable. Congress also recently gave the industry new subsidies to promote new reactor construction including an “insurance” against financial losses caused by regulatory delays.
At least eight utilities, including all the major operators of nuclear power plants, have been testing the regulatory environment to determine how fast a new reactor might get approved by the NRC. Though no final decision on a project has been announced, several companies have indicated they would like to build a new reactor by 2010.
Three reactor vendors — Westinghouse, General Electric, and the French company AREVA — are competing with different new reactor designs.
Under the Nustart plan, the reactor at Grand Gulf would be a GE designed reactor, while the one in Alabama would use a Westinghouse design.
The Nustart consortium was created to develop an application for a construction and operating license for at least two new reactors. Once received from the NRC, any of the group’s members or a combination of members could use the license if it finally decides to build a new reactor.