NEW YORK -- U.S. nuclear utilities were putting the finishing touches Monday on applications for government funding to seek licenses for new reactor sites, representatives of those companies said.
The Bush administration is making $3 million available for one or more utilities to test the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's streamlined early site licensing procedures as part of an effort to build new U.S. nuclear power plants by the end of the decade.
Exelon Corp. (EXC), Entergy Corp. (ETR) and Dominion Resources (D), all companies that own several reactors, said they were seeking a portion of the $3 million as part of their efforts to bank new sites for future reactors.
"We aren't announcing plans to build a new reactor, but we want to keep our nuclear option open," Entergy spokesman Carl Crawford said.
Entergy hasn't made public which site it plans to study for a permit.
The first phase of the project explores the time and cost of preparing an application for the NRC. The second phase of the project will help subsidized the cost one or more companies seeking a permit to build a reactor from the NRC. The DOE will cover up to 50% of the cost.
Both Dominion and Exelon, who were selected to participate in the first phase, have said they intend to pursue early site permits whether or not they are awarded funds in the second phase of the project.
Dominion has said will apply for an early site permit in September 2003 to bank space at its North Anna plant in Louisa Country, Virginia. Exelon will identify a site by June 30 and submit an early site permit in the spring of 2003, spokeswoman Mary Rucci said.
The process of seeking a permit could take two and half years, said DOE spokesman Tim Jackson.
Under streamlined licensing procedures initiated by the NRC in 1989, nuclear power companies will be able to complete the site-evaluation part of the plant-licensing process before making a firm decision to build a plant.
Once the NRC issues the early site permit, it's valid for 20 years and can be used as the groundwork for submitting an application for an operating license.
Overall, the DOE has set aside $48.5 million in matching funds over the next two years to study sites that can host new nuclear power plants, demonstrate the NRC's licensing processes and conduct research to make new nuclear technologies available in the U.S.
The methods used by Dominion and Exelon in the first phase of the project to measure site suitability will be submitted to the DOE in August and will become part of industry's guidelines on the NRC's early site permitting process, said Jolene Robinson, a nuclear engineer at the DOE.
WASHINGTON, April 15 — The Exelon Corporation, the nation's biggest owner of nuclear power plants, is dropping out of an international consortium that is developing a smaller, cheaper kind of nuclear plant, an Energy Department official said today.
The utility, which is based in Chicago, will halt its financing of the so-called pebble bed modular reactor, now in the design stage, said Norton Haberman, the department official.
The pebble bed modular reactor produces about one-tenth of the electricity of a typical nuclear plant, which produces about 1,000 megawatts. Supporters of the new technology say it would be faster, cheaper and safer to build because it uses helium as the plant's coolant instead of pressurized water.
Exelon executives were meeting with other project investors in South Africa and were expected to make an announcement on Tuesday, an Exelon vice president, Elizabeth Moler, said. She refused to comment further on the status of the project.
Exelon holds a 12.5 percent stake in the project. Other participants include South Africa's state-owned electric utility, the Industrial Development Corporation, with 25 percent, and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., with 22.5 percent. The consortium had planned to build a $300 million demonstration model in South Africa beginning next year.
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