A power company in Maryland has applied to open the first new nuclear power plant in the United States since the Three Mile Island accident:
The first application to build a new U.S. nuclear power plant in three decades has been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bumping a proposed third unit at a Calvert County site to the front of a list of reactors being considered by the nuclear power industry.
Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore has filed a partial application with the NRC, asking the commission to review environmental plans for a 1,600-megawatt reactor at the Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, Md., that could cost $4 billion.
The filing marked another small step toward a resurgence of the nuclear power industry, bolstered by generous federal tax incentives and growing concern about the greenhouse gases emitted by coal-fired plants, which supply half the country’s electricity. There has not been an application to build a nuclear power plant in the United States since before the partial meltdown at one of the Three Mile Island units in Pennsylvania in 1979.
“It’s partial, but it’s the first application to operate and build a new reactor that the NRC has received in about 30 years,” NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said yesterday.
The existing pair of Calvert Cliffs reactors — which went into service in 1975 and 1977 — are the closest ones to the nation’s capital, 50 miles southeast of the District.
Companies seeking to build nuclear plants can qualify for energy production tax credits and certain loan guarantees under the 2005 Energy Policy Act only if they get the NRC to accept construction permits before the end of 2008. Burnell said the NRC expects as many as 18 other nuclear power plant applications by then, though many critics of nuclear power say high costs and continuing problems with nuclear waste disposal will likely prevent most of them from being built.
It’s about time.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
We’ll see how it goes with the idea of new nuclear plants versus the perception a chunk of the public has that The Simpsons is an accurate portrayal of the industry. (Then there’s the other side of the coin who portray it as the wonder of all wonders.)
Politicians, pundits and “experts” say some zany things about energy in general and nuclear in particular. I would know - I’ve worked in the US nuclear industry over twenty years. To help with the discussion, I’ve written a thriller novel looking at nuclear power - its people, its politics, its technology, and its good points and bad points (plenty of both). “Rad Decision” is free online at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com - and readers seem to like it judging from their comments on the homepage. It’s also available in paperback at online retailers, and has been endorsed by Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog, internet pioneer, and noted futurist.