[NukeNet] Flood of New Nuclear Reactors Expected As Admission Made To Terrorist Vulnerable Reactors Now Operating

[Bill Smirnow]

   >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.

     So they [not identified but apparantly NRC and/or builders of new NPPs]
admit that nuclear facilities currently operating are not up to full
anti-terrorist potentials. Interesting [not surprising, of course] that
there's an admission to the public being expendible re nuclear terrorism.
Remember Al Qaeda and all terrorist organizations [including those making
the reactors & facilities] already have 440 nuclear weapons around the world
in the form of commercial nuclear reactors. They don't need to buy or
assemble conventional nuclear weapons they just need to attack

 [ http://www.tmia.com/sabter.html ] what commercial nuclear vendors
manufacture, NRC welcomes and NRC's counterparts welcomes around the world.
That's all that matters- $$$, not life.

   Click URL for hyperlinks:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-New-Reactors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
     Flood of New Nuclear Reactors Expected
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 7, 2007
Filed at 10:00 a.m. ET

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- 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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