New nuclear reactors coming in the US

[Soontir C'boath]

9 February 2012 Last updated at 15:17 ET First nuclear reactors since 1970s approved in US

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the first nuclear reactors to be built in the country since 1978.
The commission voted 4-1 in favour of Southern Co building two nuclear reactors at an existing Georgia plant.

But Chairman Gregory Jaczko voted against, expressing concern that the licence was being approved "as if Fukushima never happened".

The reactors are expected to cost $14bn (£8.8bn) and could begin operating as early as 2016 or 2017.

No reactors have been approved for construction since a year before the accident at Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, in 1979.

'Binding commitment'
Safety concerns around nuclear power have risen following a meltdown at Japan's Fukushima power plant in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami damaged safety features.

In the wake of the Japanese disaster the commission launched a review into whether existing and new US reactors could withstand natural disasters like earthquakes and floods.

Mr Jaczko said he believes approving the reactors "requires some type of binding commitment" that safety enhancements planned from the review would be in place before the reactors opened.

Southern's project is considered a test of whether the industry can avoid costly delays that plagued previous reactors.

The Obama administration has offered Southern and its partners $8.3bn in federal loan guarantees, helping lowering financing costs.

The reactor design, approved separately in December, will also be used by utility companies in Florida and South Carolina currently in the approval process.

[Mr Bean]

Now my question is what type of planets are they building? Are we going to do the original plan which was a cleaned up Gen 2? Or are we using a mature Gen 3 or one of the new Gen 4 designs?

[Sea Skimmer]

AP1000 which is Generation III+. The Generation 4 way of designating reactors is kind of completely useless though if you want to talk about how modern or safe something is. People built what could be called Generation 4 stuff in the 1950s and 60s, but it sucked crap like the various molten sodium reactors that melted down, or Russian lead cooled reactors, Generation III is just as bad, though Generation III+ means something.

AP1000 is the only new reactor you can easily pour concrete on in the US right now; several in China are reaching an advanced stage of construction. The European Pressurized Reactor was getting close to being US certified but that effort seems to have stalled for lack of anyone wanting to build one. I believe the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor should have final design approval any day now, but once that happens it will take a while before building at any specific site was approved. Nobody has a modern Generation 4 design that's remotely ready for construction that I can think of.

[Mr Bean]

AP1000 is the only new reactor you can easily pour concrete on in the US right now; several in China are reaching an advanced stage of construction. The European Pressurized Reactor was getting close to being US certified but that effort seems to have stalled for lack of anyone wanting to build one. I believe the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor should have final design approval any day now, but once that happens it will take a while before building at any specific site was approved. Nobody has a modern Generation 4 design that's remotely ready for construction that I can think of.

My mistake I was thinking the CANDU Canadian reactor was a Gen 4 design since it can burn Uranium and theoretically Thorium as well.

[Sea Skimmer]

Well some improved CANDU types have been thrown under the Generation 4 heading, but they are more like concept designs then actual detail designs for the moment. A Generation III+ design called ACR-1000 is being certified in Canada but construction plans have become very hazy in recent years. All the existing ones are Generation II. Basically don't expect Generation IV before about 2030; even if the western nuclear industry falls apart again China and India are likely to push something through to construction.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Approved? Yes. Funded? We'll see. The private sector has been uneasy since well before Fukushima, given the harrowing dearth of federal subsidies for nuclear power plants in most of the developed world, and the problem has only deepened since. Moody's considers nuclear a "bet-the-farm" proposal, Citibank calls it a "corporation killer" and the IAEA admits that nuclear was financially sick well before Fukushima and that the incident merely exposed the sickness. Siemens has fled the industry in anticipation of the German phaseout, winter reinstatement not withstanding, and in Canada the AECL has been partially privatized and subject to extensive layoffs. Event without any of this, it would be difficult to account for the phaseouts in Spain, Venezuela, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and Belgium, and the decision to financially leave the industry out in the cold without significant subsidizes in the UK, US, Canada and elsewhere. Say what you will, but I've invested a good part of my life getting into this industry and learning how to read the vital signs, and this is as evident as any other sign; the nuclear renaissance is dead. Put a stake in it. You thought public backlash was bad? Investor backlash slammed the nails in the coffin.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yeah, nuclear power is very important to the future but I don't expect to see more than 13 reactors built in the US out of this tranche when originally there were going to be 30+. As the old reactors become grossly obsolescent, they may also be replaced with Gen III+ designs if gas prices go back up and Congress can provide some special law for one-for-one same-site, same-cooling-water-consumption replacement of reactors that further simplifies the approval process. Even with that I don't expect to see another round of nuclear authorizations in the US for at least twenty years. Roughly speaking it seems clear now that the US plan is to reduce coal fired powerplants by building natural gas plants to replace them. Ultimately when fuel prices for natural gas rise far enough, nuclear will look like the only option going forward, but until then work on it will be focused in the Indian-China-Argentina-Brazil developing nation tier which is actually engaging in government funding of heavy industrial investment still. There's enough prospects there that I'm still looking to go to graduate school in nuke eng., but I also diversified and applied for a bunch of naval architecture and ocean engineering programmes.

[Magis]

Well some improved CANDU types have been thrown under the Generation 4 heading, but they are more like concept designs then actual detail designs for the moment. A Generation III+ design called ACR-1000 is being certified in Canada but construction plans have become very hazy in recent years.

The ACR project is cancelled, and the 4th-gen SCWR CANDU project has been the subject of a tiny amount of research, but nobody actually expects one to ever be built.

The Canadian 3rd-generation offering, the Enhanced CANDU 6 has some potential, though. Argentina and China are each likely to purchase one, and Ontario will likely purchase two.