Exelon eyes Illinois nuclear site for early permit
Date: 01-May-02
Country: USA
Exelon has previously notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of its intention to submit an application by June 2003 to "bank" a potential site for a new nuclear reactor, but until now has not identified the site.
The company said in a statement, however, that it has not yet decided whether to construct a nuclear plant at the site.
It will only apply for an early site permit, which gives a company the option of building a new nuclear reactor on its land for up to 20 years without specifying the reactor type or committing to construction.
Review and approval of the application is expected to take 18 to 30 months, Exelon said.
The permit process, which examines a site for safety, environmental factors and emergency preparedness among other things, is the first step in the NRC's new, streamlined licensing process and has not yet been tested.
Exelon said it chose the Clinton site in DeWitt County, Illinois, partly because it was originally designed for two units. The site currently houses a 950-megawatt reactor.
The Clinton plant is owned and operated by AmerGen, a joint venture of Exelon Corp. and British Energy .
Exelon Nuclear, a division of Exelon Generation, is the largest nuclear plant operator in the nation. It owns and operates 17 reactors at 10 stations.
Exelon Generation is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.
Exelon said it is has not made a decision on the type of reactor design it may chose to use if it proceeds.
Earlier this month, Exelon Corp. said it is dropping out of an international consortium developing a smaller, cheaper kind of nuclear plant, the so-called pebble bed modular reactor, which is is currently in the design stage.
Two other companies - Entergy Nuclear, a unit of Entergy Corp. , and Dominion Resources Inc. - are also preparing early site permits for possible new nuclear reactors.
But the two companies also emphasized that, although they want to keep their options open, they have no plans to build new nuclear plants at present.
No commercial nuclear power plant has been ordered in the U.S. since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, when there was a partial meltdown of a reactor core.