8 Sept (NucNet): A call for bids to build a new nuclear power plant in Mexico could be made as early as 2008, a senior member of the government confirmed yesterday.
Jose Alberto Acevedo Monroy, Mexico’s under-secretary for electricity, told the World Nuclear Association’s annual symposium in London that the estimated start of construction of the unit was in 2009 or 2010, followed by the start of commercial operation around 2015. He did not specify whether the government had a particular reactor design in mind.
After the proposed new unit is launched, an ambitious programme for the construction of “seven or more” units could be given the go-ahead.
Mr Acevedo said Mexico was considering a stronger reliance on domestic nuclear power generation, particularly as a result of Hurricane Katrina, which caused widespread damage to the region in August 2005 and severely disrupted supplies of natural gas to Mexico. “We took a big hit with Katrina and we want to move away to have more of a diversified energy mix,” he added.
He described Mexico’s existing procedures for the licensing of new units as “very long”, but said studies would begin in 2007 to consider what financing would be needed to support regulatory and licensing procedures for the potential new-build programme.
Mr Acevedo said there was also a great deal of work to be done in explaining the benefits of increased nuclear generating capacity to a largely sceptical Mexican people. However, he said the government was ready to be more open in explaining nuclear issues and help pave the way for more widespread acceptance of the need to build additional units.
Mexico has two 680-megawatt boiling water reactor units in operation at its Laguna Verde nuclear power plant in Veracruz in the south-east of the country. Unit one was connected to the grid in 1989 followed by unit two in 1994.
