By Eileen O'Grady
HOUSTON, March 26 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp, the nation's largest nuclear plant operator, on Thursday said GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy will supply a more mature technology for two new reactors for a proposed nuclear plant in Texas.
Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit said the company signed an agreement with Hitachi to develop two 1,350-megawatt reactors based on the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design in Victoria County, Texas.
Last fall, Chicago-based Exelon said it would not proceed with an initial plan to work with GE/Hitachi using the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) because that design has not been certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The GE/Hitachi ABWR design is the 'best certified design on the market in our view,' Nesbit said. 'We are committed to this technology.'
Four ABWR units are already operating in Japan, with another three units under construction in Taiwan and Japan, GE said on its website.
Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of U.S. electricity. Proponents note nuclear plants emit none of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other gases that come from coal and other fossil-fueled plants.
But the recession and tight credit markets have prompted downward revisions in early predictions for more than a dozen new reactors built by 2020. Cambridge Energy Research Associates now expects four to eight new reactors by then.
In November, Exelon said the ESBWR design did not meet its time frame for the Texas project. It blamed uncertainty about the technology for the plant's low initial ranking by the U.S. Department of Energy, which was prioritizing competing requests for federal loan guarantees.
Exelon remains among 10 companies that submitted the second part of the loan application late last year. It has said the loan guarantee is critical for the Texas project to proceed.
The Energy Department said 10 companies, proposing to build 16 reactors, requested loan guarantees of $93 billion in the part-two applications. That far exceeded the program's $18.5 billion budget but was down from earlier requests for $122 billion in support from 14 developers.
Since then, the DOE has narrowed the list of first-wave contenders to five, according to company sources. Two of those projects are also in Texas.
Nesbit said Exelon has notified DOE of its new design choice and will work to amend its NRC construction and operating license application filed last year and negotiate an engineering and construction contract with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Co, a joint venture of units of privately held Luminant and Mitsuishi Heavy Industries ; NRG Energy's South Texas Project, both in Texas; Unistar Nuclear's Calvert Cliffs 3 reactor in Maryland; and SCANA Corp/Santee Cooper's Summer station expansion in South Carolina are among five projects still under DOE consideration, company officials said.
(Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; Editing by John Picinich)
((eileen.ogrady@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 210 8522; Reuters Messaging: eileen.ogrady.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: NUCLEAR EXELON/TEXAS (For help: Click 'Contact Us' in your desk top, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
HOUSTON, March 26 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp, the nation's largest nuclear plant operator, on Thursday said GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy will supply a more mature technology for two new reactors for a proposed nuclear plant in Texas.
Exelon spokesman Craig Nesbit said the company signed an agreement with Hitachi to develop two 1,350-megawatt reactors based on the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design in Victoria County, Texas.
Last fall, Chicago-based Exelon said it would not proceed with an initial plan to work with GE/Hitachi using the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) because that design has not been certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The GE/Hitachi ABWR design is the 'best certified design on the market in our view,' Nesbit said. 'We are committed to this technology.'
Four ABWR units are already operating in Japan, with another three units under construction in Taiwan and Japan, GE said on its website.
Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of U.S. electricity. Proponents note nuclear plants emit none of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other gases that come from coal and other fossil-fueled plants.
But the recession and tight credit markets have prompted downward revisions in early predictions for more than a dozen new reactors built by 2020. Cambridge Energy Research Associates now expects four to eight new reactors by then.
In November, Exelon said the ESBWR design did not meet its time frame for the Texas project. It blamed uncertainty about the technology for the plant's low initial ranking by the U.S. Department of Energy, which was prioritizing competing requests for federal loan guarantees.
Exelon remains among 10 companies that submitted the second part of the loan application late last year. It has said the loan guarantee is critical for the Texas project to proceed.
The Energy Department said 10 companies, proposing to build 16 reactors, requested loan guarantees of $93 billion in the part-two applications. That far exceeded the program's $18.5 billion budget but was down from earlier requests for $122 billion in support from 14 developers.
Since then, the DOE has narrowed the list of first-wave contenders to five, according to company sources. Two of those projects are also in Texas.
Nesbit said Exelon has notified DOE of its new design choice and will work to amend its NRC construction and operating license application filed last year and negotiate an engineering and construction contract with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Co, a joint venture of units of privately held Luminant and Mitsuishi Heavy Industries ; NRG Energy's South Texas Project, both in Texas; Unistar Nuclear's Calvert Cliffs 3 reactor in Maryland; and SCANA Corp/Santee Cooper's Summer station expansion in South Carolina are among five projects still under DOE consideration, company officials said.
(Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; Editing by John Picinich)
((eileen.ogrady@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 210 8522; Reuters Messaging: eileen.ogrady.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: NUCLEAR EXELON/TEXAS (For help: Click 'Contact Us' in your desk top, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.