One-year setback for Nine Mile Point 3
.jpg "Nine Mile Point 3 (Unistar)"){kind=small}
Regulators will not begin work on an application to build a new reactor at Nine Mile Point for another year after Unistar Nuclear Energy concluded a 'sequence optimization' of the project. The new schedule increases its chance of gaining a loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy.
Regulators will not begin work on an application to build a new reactor at Nine Mile Point for another year after Unistar Nuclear Energy concluded a 'sequence optimization' of the project. The new schedule increases its chance of gaining a loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy.
.jpg "Nine Mile Point 3 (Unistar)") |
How Nine Mile Point would look with the addition of unit 3 (Image: Unistar) |
Unistar - a joint venture of Constellation Energy and Electricité de France's EDF Group - submitted an application to build and operate a 1600 MWe Areva EPR at Nine Mile Point 3 at the end of September 2008, with an original intention that work on the COL would start in September 2009. However, in early February the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was asked to hold off starting its review of because Unistar would be focusing its resources on the Calvert Cliffs site, the "lead" application for the EPR. Now the start date for main work on the COL application will be September 2010 after Unistar wrote to the NRC to discuss a "sequence optimization" of the review.
In letter to local supporters and stakeholders, Unistar president and CEO George Vanderheyden explained that the company had "evaluated a number of factors in making this request, including the need to focus on the state regulatory reviews in New York for the next 12 months... In addition, our decision was influenced by the US Department of Energy's federal loan guarantee program for advanced nuclear energy projects – a program that was significantly oversubscribed. Our Nine Mile Point 3 project was not among the finalists for this program in 2009 but Congress is actively considering another allocation for clean-air, new nuclear energy projects in 2010."
Vanderheyden added, "We know our decisions could affect the completion date of the facility, and we continue to assess our overall schedule milestones for the project."
Unistar underlined that it has not yet made a final decision on whether to build a new reactor at the Nine Mile Point site, which is already home to two boiling water reactors (BWRs).
In addition to Nine Mile Point unit 3, Unistar is working on three other EPR projects: Calvert Cliffs 3 in Maryland, Callaway 2 in Missouri and Bell Bend in Pennsylvania.
