9 Feb (NucNet): The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the first new nuclear reactors in America for more than three decades.
The commission announced today that it had approved plans from Southern Company for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle nuclear site in Georgia. The reactors could begin commercial operation as soon as 2016 and 2017.
The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
The NRC said it expects to issue the combined construction and operating licences (COLs) within 10 business days. NRC construction inspectors have been on-site at Vogtle since April 2010, examining Southern Company’s activities to prepare the plant’s foundation under a permit issued in August 2009.
The NRC certified Westinghouse’s amended AP1000 design in December 2011. The AP1000 is a 1,100 megawatt pressurised water reactor (PWR) that includes passive safety features that would cool down the reactor after an accident without the need for electricity or human intervention.
Southern Nuclear operates Plant Vogtle’s two existing nuclear units as well as Georgia Power's two-unit Hatch nuclear plant in Georgia and Alabama Power's two-unit Farley nuclear facility in Alabama.
