Exelon drops out of nuke plant design group - US government
Date: 16-Apr-02
Country: USA
The Chicago-based utility will halt its funding of the so-called pebble bed modular reactor, currently in the design stage, said Norton Haberman, a DOE official.
"Exelon is dropping out of the pebble bed consortium. They are not reactor designers," Haberman told an Energy Department conference on nuclear power and research.
The pebble bed modular reactor is a smaller, merchant-type generator that produces about one-tenth of the electricity of a typical U.S. nuclear plant, which produces about 1,000 megawatts. Supporters of the new technology say it would be faster, cheaper and safer to build because it uses helium as the plant's coolant instead of pressurized water.
Exelon executives were meeting with other project investors in South Africa and were expected to make an announcement on Tuesday, said Exelon Vice President Elizabeth Moler. She refused to comment further on the status of the project.
Exelon holds a 12.5 percent stake in the project. Other participants include South Africa's state-owned electric utility, the Industrial Development Corp. with 25 percent, and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. with 22.5 percent.
Exelon was a key player in the consortium and had negotiated for the possible purchase of 40 of the new plants at a total cost of around $6 billion.
The consortium had planned to build a $300 million demonstration model in South Africa beginning next year.
Next week, Exelon chairman and co-chief executive officer Corbin McNeill is scheduled to retire from the company.
Exelon operates nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey that account for nearly 20 percent of the U.S. nuclear generation capacity.
The Bush administration recently unveiled a 10-year program to spend more than $300 million to jumpstart the U.S. nuclear industry with new nuclear technology.
No new U.S. nuclear power reactors have been built since the 1979 accident involving the partial meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island.
A rival new design by Westinghouse Electric Co would rely on gravity and pressure differentials to safely shut down a nuclear power plant reactor in an accident.