Friday, February 02, 2007

Nuclear Power on the Move

TVA maps new plan to meet energy demand

Dave Flessner, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, January 28, 2007 via MSNBC

To meet the growing energy needs of the Tennessee Valley, TVA estimates it will need the equivalent of a new nuclear power plant every two years. ...

The U.S. Department of Energy picked TVA's Bellefonte site in Hollywood, Ala., for the new AP-1000...

The two new reactors proposed at Bellefonte are among 31 new units being considered nationwide by utility groups ...

By October, TVA and its NuStart partners are due to submit their application to the NRC for a new type of pressurized water reactor -- a Westinghouse AP-1000 design -- at the Bellefonte nuclear plant site. Regulators will have three years to review and sign off on the plans before construction begins. ...

If the license application for the AP-1000 is submitted this year and construction is under way by 2012, any private owners of Bellefonte or similar next-generation plants could qualify for up to $125 million a year in federal subsidies ...

Just an update on what is going on with next-generation nuclear plants, the time frame and subsidies. My position remains the same, that only four of the next-generation plants should be built until the technology is demonstrated. In the meantime conservation, battery based vehicles, wind power, solar troughs and IGCC plants and CTL plants with carbon capture should be the basis of our energy policy. In 3-5 years thin-film PV should be ready for prime tme and become a primary source of renewable energy.

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