October 30, 2005
Nukes on order
Finally! From Westinghouse:
Westinghouse Pleased Duke Power to Pursue COL for 2 AP1000s
Duke Power's announcement today that it will prepare a combined construction and operating license (COL) for two Westinghouse AP1000s is a major step forward for nuclear power by a prominent, forward-looking U.S. energy company, Westinghouse Electric Company officials said today.
“Duke's decision is forward looking in that it will further ensure long-term and diverse generating options for Duke and its customers,” said Steve Tritch, Westinghouse President and CEO. “As a result of this action, Duke will be in a position to commence construction of new nuclear plants as early as the 2010 timeframe.”
The Westinghouse AP1000, set to receive Design Certification in December, is the only Generation III+ plant to receive Final Design Approval (FDA) from the U.S. NRC. Competing designs are still in the earliest stages (application or pre-application submittal) of the multi-year FDA process.
Very cool — each reactor is rated for about 11 MWe which is enough to power a good sized city. New York requires about 35 MWe.
Ten Megawatts of coal generated power requires about 90 traincar loads of coal per day to produce.
Ten Megawatts of Nuclear requires about six kilos of fuel/day.
Less environmental impact for the mining and refining and no greenhouse gasses.
Duke Power's website is here: Duke Power but their server seems to be down. Short article about them at Wikipedia Posted by DaveH at October 30, 2005 04:31 PM | TrackBack
Do we have data on how far into mothballs the Salish reactors are? Some mighty nice cooling towers sitting there.
Posted by: Al at October 31, 2005 02:18 PMThe news that you have reported is definitely good, but you have weakened your publication's credibility with the incorrect numbers that you have posted.
The capacity of the AP 1000 is a bit more than 1100 MWe, not 11 MWe.
I am pretty sure that your figure for electric power demands of New York City is also off by a factor of 100.
North Carolina is ahead of the curve on nuclear power -- Progress Energy's Shearon-Harris Nuke Plant is down the road from Raleigh, and thank goodness, sez I.
Posted by: Don McArthur at October 30, 2005 05:43 PM