[NukeNet] NRG to Seek Permit for Nuclear Reactors

[Bill Smirnow]

   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/24cnd-nuke.html
    NRG to Seek Permit for Nuclear Reactors

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By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: September 24, 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - An independent power producer expects to ask the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday for permission to build two nuclear
reactors at a site 90 miles southwest of Houston, the first time since the
mid-1970's that a company has sought approval to build a nuclear power plant
in the United States.

The company, NRG Energy, based in Princeton, N.J., is seeking to build a
General Electric model now used in Japan and under construction in Taiwan
but untried in the United States. The announcement Tuesday will be a
decision to seek a combined construction and operating license under a new
process meant to avoid the long delays and cost overruns in the last round
of nuclear construction, but the company has not yet ordered the reactors.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates the cost of obtaining a license
at $24 million, but some industry experts say it could easily be more. The
plant itself would run into the billions of dollars.

Still, the application, the first of what the commission anticipates will be
about two dozen in the next few months, is a milestone for the industry.
More than 100 reactor projects were canceled in the 1970s and '80s, some
abandoned in late stages of construction. Revived interest in nuclear power
is being driven by a combination of strong growth in demand for electricity,
high prices for natural gas and the potential for taxes on carbon dioxide,
which would make coal use more expensive, experts said.

By filing first, NRG is likely to get first consideration from the
commission. Not having seen an application in a generation, the commission
has been hiring for the task but has also warned that its capacity to deal
with the work involved is not unlimited.

The last time the commission gave permission for work to begin was in
January 1979, to the Long Island Lighting Company, for two reactors it
wanted to build at Jamesport. The plants were not built and the company
itself no longer exists after an unsuccessful effort to build another
reactor, Shoreham.

NRG has said publicly that it is considering G.E.'s Advanced Boiling Water
Reactor, which represents a relatively low-risk choice in an industry that
few American companies have experience with. American utilities have
expressed strong interest in new designs by G.E. and two other companies -
Westinghouse, now a subsidiary of Toshiba, and Areva, a French-German
consortium - but of those, the G.E. reactor is the only one in actual
operation. Five are in use in Japan - although two are at a complex that was
struck by an earthquake last month and are shut for the time being - and two
are in advanced construction in Taiwan.

The new design has several innovations that are intended to sharply reduce
the risk of meltdown, although that risk is already described by the
industry and by regulators as very low. Other innovations are supposed to
reduce the time and cost of construction.

Nuclear power enjoys strong support in the spot where NRG would like to
build, a sparsely populated area near Bay City, Tex., but activists in Texas
are already promising to oppose the plant as uneconomical.

In theory, the plant is being built as a merchant generator. And the risk of
cost overruns in construction, or poor operation or other problem, is in
theory at the risk of the builder. But Tom Smith, an energy expert with
Public Citizen, said that the four reactors already running in Texas had
cost 6 to 12 times the original estimate and that expensive plants were sure
to push up the price of power.

 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/business/25security.html

   Security Provider at Reactor to Be Fired


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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 25, 2007
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 25 (AP) - The Exelon Corporation said Monday that it
would end its contract with a company that provides security at the Peach
Bottom nuclear power plant in south-central Pennsylvania after security
officers were caught on videotape nodding off or sleeping on the job.

A video taken two to six months ago showed the guards, employed by the
security firm Wackenhut, napping while sitting on chairs in a break room,
said Christopher M. Crane, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation.

"This is not acceptable, and we will not tolerate it," Mr. Crane said,
adding that the actions did not affect plant safety or security.

The video, which was taped by another security guard, appeared to show fewer
than 10 guards, said an Exelon spokesman, Craig Nesbit. Officials with the
company, which is based in Chicago, say they think the guards were recorded
on the overnight shift.

Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., provides security for Exelon's
10 nuclear power plants.

Wackenhut's senior vice president, Marc Shapiro, said officials considered
the apparent lapses in attentiveness an anomaly.

"At this point, it's a small number of security personnel that were not
performing as they should have," Mr. Shapiro said.

Peach Bottom is on the Susquehanna River about 60 miles west of
Philadelphia. Officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it would
increase security inspections at the plant, including surprise visits.
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