26 Jun (NucNet): Dutch utility Delta yesterday launched the procedure that will eventually lead to the application for a permit to build a second nuclear power plant near the existing one at Borssele.
Delta said the procedure will be set in motion by the submission of a start-up memorandum to the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. The new unit is expected to be operational in 2018.
Delta said the aim is for a permit application under the Nuclear Power Act to be submitted by the end of 2011. If all goes well, a building permit could be applied for in 2012, and construction could start in 2013.
The construction costs will be in the order of four to five billion euro (5.6 to 7 billion US dollars).
Delta chief executive officer Peter Boerma said yesterday that Delta aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 and will be able to achieve this by investing in solar energy and nuclear power.
In September 2008 Delta announced that it wanted to build a new unit at Borssele with an electricity generating capacity of between 1,000 and 1,600 megawatts electric (MWe).
The existing unit at Borssele, a 482-MWe pressurised water reactor, is the Netherlands’ only commercially operational reactor. It began commercial operation in 1973 and in 2006 was granted a lifetime extension that will keep it operating until 2033.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Agreement Extends Lifetime Of Netherlands’ Borssele Plant To 2033 (News No. 126, 16 June 2006)
Borssele Achieves Record Nuclear Production In The Netherlands (News in Brief No. 10, 23 January 2008)
Dutch Utility Starts Licensing Process For Proposed New Unit At Borssele (News No. 73, 10 September 2008)
