Progress Energy To File Nuclear Plant Application
Date: 20-Feb-08
Country: US
Progress Energy will file its combined operating license application with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) later in the day, said the company.
The proposed reactors would be constructed at its existing Harris Nuclear Plant site, located 20 miles southwest of Raleigh. Still, the final decision to build another nuclear plant is more than a year away, Progress said.
The company notified the NRC that if it moves forward with its nuclear plans, the new plant would be on line in 2018 or beyond.
In the past year a number of power companies have filed applications to build new nuclear plants, trying to take advantage of nuclear production tax credits, financial risk insurance, and federal loan guarantees specified in the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Prior to the recent spate of filings, no new applications had been filed since 1977, and several planned plants were cancelled after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania sparked a backlash against nuclear power.
The NRC has said it expects to receive 30 applications for new nuclear units as power producers seek to boost electricity generation from sources that do not emit carbon dioxide.
(Reporting by Lisa Lee, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Dave Zimmerman)
