First new nuclear reactors OK'd in over 30 years

CNN Breaking News ^ | 2/9/12 | Steve Hargreaves

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Oil refineries are being closed and the existing plants are running at low capacity.

[GraceG]

The Chinese are going to get the jump on us with Liquid Thorium Flouride Reactors while we are still waiting on environmental studies...

[FreeAtlanta]

Hooray!!!!!!!!

Does this include getting past all the lawsuits from the communist anti-Americans?

There is no legitimate reason that we can’t build 10 nuclear power plants a year for the next 3 or 4 years. The left uses “environmental concerns” to attack our nation and make us weak.

[kidd]

I see a lot of posts here about “scams”, “lawsuits”, etc. Please let me reply:

The nuclear industry hasn’t been sitting on its hands for the past 30 years. They’ve worked with the NRC to institute an alternate approval process.

Both the nuclear industry and the NRC saw that the old approval process was ripe for abuses - one that allowed anyone with an agenda to slow the project to a halt. Neither the industry or the regulator benefited from these delays.

The new process still allows challenges to a new license. But such challenges have their specific time in the schedule. Those times have passed for Vogtle-3 and4 .

All of the site and design challenges happened prior to Obama’s influence.

This is it. They WILL be built, and they WILL operate.

[COBOL2Java]

I also perceive a very long process of more bureacracy before a the first shovel of dirt is turned.

I predict a process at least as mind-numbingly Vogon-class cumbersome as Washington DC's procedure for acquiring a handgun, as documented in Emily Miller's Washington Times blog, Emily Gets Her Gun

"So - you want to build a nuclear power plant, eh?"

[kidd]

The licensing process has changed since Shoreham.

There are no more challenges that can be made.

[kidd]

I also perceive a very long process of more bureacracy before a the first shovel of dirt is turned.

The Vogtle plants are past that hurdle.

The new process separates challenges to the siting of the nuclear plant from the design of the plant. The Vogtle plants passed those parts already.

Many shovels of dirt have already been turned for site prep. Here is a pic of the new Vogtle site:

[thinkthenpost]

You seem to be in the know, so I’d like to pick your brain,.....

If memory serves there were two reactors that had started winding through the process in S/SE Texas. I seem to recall at least one of the utilities involved getting cold feet. I believe NRG was one of the companies involved.

Are you aware of the status of these reactors are they dead, ongoing, or in limbo?

Thanks for the time.

[taildragger]

Also instead of building the Keystone XL pipeline, why not build a refinery in North Dakota, plenty of oil from Canada and North Dakota and with the rail lines refined petrol could be shipped out to supply the Northern USA with plenty of oil. Why ship it ALL the way to Houston just to refine it?

Is it true they are "flairing" the Natural Gas?

If so that is a sin and a Gas to Liquid ( GTL ) plant to get it converted to a very clean diesel fuel would be a quick win / win.

[SumProVita]

“The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved licenses to build two new nuclear reactors Thursday”

It must be an election year...with a bit of concern on the part of this incumbent.

[Digger]

The Chinese are going to get the jump on us with Liquid Thorium Flouride Reactors while we are still waiting on environmental studies...

This is where we should be going.

[Made In The USA]

I’m far to cynical on this stuff, good to see some actual progress on a new nuclear plant.

[bagman]

The issuing of the Combined Operating License is the culmination of many years of work by a lot of people. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a Design Certification of the AP1000 plant being built in Georgia just before Christmas last year.

In regulatory space, a reactor design consortium has to show that the design meets specific minimum design criteria. If it meets those criteria, then the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no choice but to issue the Design Certification.

Similarly, for a site, the applicant has to show that a certified design is being used and that the site is suitable. Given that the Vogtle site already has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors of an earlier vintage operating, the site suitability demonstration is rather easy. Again, if the criteria are met, then the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission must issue the Combined Operating License.

Bottom Line: Obama had nothing to do with the issuance of the Combined Opedrating Licenses for Vogtle 3 and 4.

[taildragger]

This is it. They WILL be built, and they WILL operate.

I hear Savannah is getting the port dredged for larger vessels for international trade.

Combine this with a lower cost and consistant energy source with these plants and I can see Georgia as a manufacturing and shipping dynamo in the American Economy in the next 5 to 10 years.

I see Catapillar is looking for a new Manufacturing Facility...

Georgia Baby, Georgia is the answer..

[nuke rocketeer]

Too late. The courts have no jurisdiction over them. Once the COL is issued, only the NRC can stop construction activities.

[nuke rocketeer]

The COL is a Construction Operating Liscense. If the local inspectors certify it is built to the approved design, 0bama cannot stop it from producing power. There will be no more hearings and no way for the anti-nuke fanatics to interfere.

[backwoods-engineer]

First new nuclear reactors OK'd in over 30 years

Read my virtual lips: THEY WILL NEVER BE BUILT.

Either the eco-commies will shut it down, or Obama himself will, or the economy will crash to the point where no power plants will be built.

This country is DONE as a leading nation in the world. Our destruction is ahead, and there are no brakes left.

[bagman]

In principle, the experience to which you refer (the Shoreham plant on Long Island) cannot be repeated. In the licensing regime at the time that the Shoreham plant was being built, a construction permit was issued, which allowed the plant to be built. Before it could be operated, an operating license had be issued. At Shoreham, the operating license was never issued and the plant never operated (except for low power startup testing).

In the licensing regime today, the construction permit and the operating license are combined into a Combined Operating License (COL). It is a one-step process. In the case of Vogtle, all of the necessary hearings have been held and all of the intervenor questions have been resolved to the satisfaction of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

While one cannot rule out what a court might do, with the issuance of the COL, the utility simply (nothing to it) needs to build the plant according to the approved design and then it can start it up. No more licensing is needed.

[nuke rocketeer]

Are you aware of the status of these reactors are they dead, ongoing, or in limbo? Dead. Tokyo Electric (TEPCO), the owner of Fukushima, was a major investor, and they pulled their stake after last March.

[Zathras]

My brother used to work for Shell Chemical.
He said a new refinerery costs nearly 20B to build and that doesn’t include the 20 years it would take to get it approved by the EPA.

A very good question but the answer is kind of sad.