U.S. regulators moved a step closer on Thursday toward clearing the country's first nuclear reactors since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, even as the industry struggles against plunging natural gas prices and safety fears after Japan's Fukushima disaster.
U.S. regulators moved a step closer on Thursday toward clearing the country's first nuclear reactors since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, even as the industry struggles against plunging natural gas prices and safety fears after Japan's Fukushima disaster.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Thursday approved the latest version of Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 reactor, stirring supporters hopes that a true U.S. nuclear power revival -- first discussed a decade ago when as a cheaper, cleaner alternative to fossil fuels -- may yet come.
Next up for the NRC is to decide whether to approve plans by U.S. power companies Southern Co and Scana Corp to build AP1000s in the U.S. Southeast. Both firms have started limited construction on two units each, which would be the first reactors built in the United States in more than 30 years.
"This is another key milestone for the Vogtle project and the nation's nuclear renaissance," Southern Co Chairman, President and CEO Thomas Fanning said in a statement.
The Obama administration has painted the resurgence of nuclear power as an important step toward cutting U.S. dependence on greenhouse-gas-emitting power sources like coal.
However, public and political opposition over the AP1000 design and nuclear power in general has swelled following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.
Westinghouse has said the AP1000 would likely have withstood the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami due to its passive safety features that can cool the reactor after an accident without the need for human intervention, AC power or pumps.
"The design provides enhanced safety margins through use of simplified, inherent, passive, or other innovative safety and security functions," NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.
Critics of nuclear power insist the NRC should be focusing more on improving safety at existing reactors, not approving new ones.
"Instead of doing all they should to protect nuclear reactors against seismically-induced ground acceleration, these Commissioners voted to approve the acceleration of reactor construction," said Rep. Edward Markey, top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
In addition to the Fukushima hurdle, the U.S. nuclear industry faces stiff competition from the rising production of cheap natural gas now flooding the market as development of shale fields sweeps across the country.
U.S. natural gas prices have plunged to near $3 per million British thermal units this week, half of 2010 peaks, as the inventory cushion built helped counter cold weather gains.
"The low price of natural gas and the absence of the carbon policy will relegate nuclear energy to the sidelines for the next several years at the least," Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress told Reuters.
A 1,000-megawatt natural gas plant takes just a few years to develop and build and costs up to $1 billion for the most efficient, combined-cycle model. A similar-sized nuclear reactor however could take more than five years to develop and build and could cost over $5 billion.
"The 'renaissance' was always a bubble because new nuclear has always been too expensive," said Peter Bradford, a former NRC commissioner and current professor of energy policy and law at the Vermont Law School.
Supporters of nuclear power point out that gas prices are volatile and utilities and the state's that regulate them want low cost, baseload power supplies from a diverse mix of fuel sources.
Southern and partners are currently spending about $14 billion to build two reactors at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia, with the first new unit expected to enter service in 2016 and the second in 2017.
Scana and partners are investing about $9.8 billion to build two reactors at the Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina. Those new units are expected to enter service in 2016 and 2019.
Southern and Scana expect the NRC to approve licenses for their proposed reactors within a month or two. Experts say those may be the only new plants built over the next decade unless the nuclear industry proves it can build them on time and on budget.
"I believe we will not see the nuclear industry move forward in any big way until Vogtle and Summer are both completed in a timely and cost predictable manner," said Margaret Harding at 4 Factor Consulting.
The NRC for the most part has kept fairly close to its schedule to approve the latest version of the AP1000 as a safer alternative to existing plants.
In fact, the NRC said it found good cause to follow Southern's proposal to make the rule certifying the AP1000 immediately effective once it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected within seven business days.
Power companies can use the AP1000 in applications for new reactors once the certification is published. NRC rules normally become effective 30 days after publication.
"The process has probably taken a little longer than we hoped but that is OK," said Scott Shaw, a spokesman for Westinghouse, majority owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp, adding the firm was on schedule to get the first reactor at Southern's Vogtle built in 2016.
Westinghouse submitted an application to certify the original version of the AP1000 in 2002, which the NRC approved in 2006. But in 2007, Westinghouse submitted an amended design to the NRC and later revised that request to comply with the agency's aircraft impact rule issued in 2009, resulting in the NRC's latest AP1000 certification on Thursday.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States using aircraft, the NRC required nuclear operators to show that their reactor's shield building could withstand severe earthquakes, hurricanes and airplane collisions.
The NRC has already certified three other reactor designs: General Electric-Hitachi Nuclear's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR), Westinghouse's System 80+ and Westinghouse's AP600.
The agency is also reviewing other applications to certify new or amended designs, including GE-Hitachi's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' U.S. Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (APWR) and Areva's EPR pressurized-water reactor.
Among U.S. utilities, the 1,100-MW AP1000 is the most popular of the proposed new reactor designs, accounting for 16 of the 37 proposed new reactors, according to the NRC website.
The United States remains the world's nuclear leader with 104 operating units producing about 20 percent of the country's energy needs, although experts guess only a handful of the proposed new reactors will be built.
Still, nuclear power use is increasing elsewhere. There are more than 60 new reactors under construction around the world, with more than two dozen in China alone, according to the World Nuclear Association.