Exelon Selects ESBWR for Texas

Details from World Nuclear News.

For more from GE Nuclear, click here.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Definitely good news for GEH. I wonder if the COL will be for one or two reactors. They previously told the NRC two reactors (either AP1000 or ESBWR) in their response to NRC RIS 2007-08 before the technology was selected. No one else has committed to 2 ESBWR reactors on one site for the COL application. I am skeptical about their commitment to new construction with cautions being uttered about needing spent fuel problems solved. That will not happen for decades at least. I say build now and worry about the waste later.

November 15, 2007 at 11:44 AM

KenG said…

I think the comments about the need to solve spent fuel storage were specific to new plants in Illinois which has a state law prohibiting new construction until long term fuel storage is resolved.

November 15, 2007 at 4:55 PM

Anonymous said…

This quote is from the Exelon press release for this announcement. "Among the various conditions that must be resolved to Exelon’s satisfaction before any formal decision to build is made is a solution to used fuel disposal and community acceptance of a new nuclear plant, the company has said." See the 11/12/07 release on the Exelon website for the full story. This means a used fuel solution for Texas if you ask me.

November 19, 2007 at 2:28 PM

How Nanomaterials Can Make Nuclear Reactors Safer and More Efficient

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior communications advisor at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald.

From the batteries in our cell phones to the clothes on our backs, "nanomaterials" that are designed molecule by molecule are working their way into our economy and our lives. Now there’s some promising work on new materials for nuclear reactors.

Reactors are a tough environment. The sub atomic particles that sustain the chain reaction, neutrons, are great for splitting additional uranium atoms, but not all of them hit a uranium atom; some of them end up in various metal components of the reactor. The metal is usually a crystalline structure, meaning it is as orderly as a ladder or a sheet of graph paper, but the neutrons rearrange the atoms, leaving some infinitesimal voids in the structure and some areas of extra density. The components literally grow, getting longer and thicker. The phenomenon is well understood and designers compensate for it with a …

Missing the Point about Pennsylvania’s Nuclear Plants

A group that includes oil and gas companies in Pennsylvania released a study on Monday that argues that twenty years ago, planners underestimated the value of nuclear plants in the electricity market. According to the group, that means the state should now let the plants close.

Huh?

The question confronting the state now isn’t what the companies that owned the reactors at the time of de-regulation got or didn’t get. It’s not a question of whether they were profitable in the '80s, '90s and '00s. It’s about now. Business works by looking at the present and making projections about the future.

Is losing the nuclear plants what’s best for the state going forward?

Pennsylvania needs clean air. It needs jobs. And it needs protection against over-reliance on a single fuel source.

What the reactors need is recognition of all the value they provide. The electricity market is depressed, and if electricity is treated as a simple commodity, with no regard for its benefit to clean air o…

Why Nuclear Plant Closures Are a Crisis for Small Town USA

Nuclear plants occupy an unusual spot in the towns where they operate: integral but so much in the background that they may seem almost invisible. But when they close, it can be like the earth shifting underfoot.

Lohud.com, the Gannett newspaper that covers the Lower Hudson Valley in New York, took a look around at the experience of towns where reactors have closed, because the Indian Point reactors in Buchanan are scheduled to be shut down under an agreement with Gov. Mario Cuomo.

From sea to shining sea, it was dismal. It wasn’t just the plant employees who were hurt. The losses of hundreds of jobs, tens of millions of dollars in payrolls and millions in property taxes depressed whole towns and surrounding areas. For example:

Vernon, Vermont, home to Vermont Yankee for more than 40 years, had to cut its municipal budget in half. The town closed its police department and let the county take over; the youth sports teams lost their volunteer coaches, and Vernon Elementary School lost th…

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog