19 Sept (NucNet): Detroit Edison has submitted a combined construction and operating licence (COL) application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a potential new reactor at its existing Enrico Fermi-2 nuclear power plant site in the state of Michigan.
The company said the proposed new unit will be based on GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s Generation III+ Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) design.
By submitting its licence application before 2009, Detroit Edison remains eligible for federal incentives offered under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to the first group of US utilities that place orders for the first new nuclear reactors in the US in three decades.
Detroit Edison is the fourth US energy company to select the ESBWR for a total of six potential reactor units. The company’s COL application is the 13th to be submitted to the NRC by a US nuclear operating company in the past 14 months. Earlier this month, Exelon Corporation submitted a COL application to the NRC for a licence to build and operate two ESBWR reactors at a site in Texas.
Enrico Fermi-2, a 1,111-megawatt boiling water reactor, is the sole operational reactor unit at the site and was first connected to the grid in September 1986.
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Bush Enacts Law ‘Towards Restart Of N-Plant Building Programme’ (News in Brief No. 73, 9 August 2005)
US Detroit Edison Prepares For Possible New-Build (News in Brief No. 3, 20 February 2007)
