GROWING PAINS Entergy’s Grand Gulf Plant could expand. (Photo courtesy of Entergy Corp.)

Construction of the first new U.S. nuclear reactor project in almost 30 years could result from steps taken by three companies since Sept. 15. Entergy Corp. on Oct. 21 applied for early approval of a nuclear powerplant site, joining Dominion Resources Inc. and Exelon Corp., which both applied in September.

The companies are participating in a U.S. Dept. of Energy pilot project to test the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s "Early Siting Program" for the first time since it was created in 1989. DOE is paying $17 million, half the cost of the siting.

None of the companies has firm plans to build at this time. If they receive site approvals under ESP they can "bank" them for up to 40 years before proposing projects. However, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, D.C., claims the filings are "evidence that energy companies are engaging in serious planning" for new reactors.

Entergy Nuclear President Gary Taylor says his company would look at economic conditions in three to five years and would consider going ahead with a nuclear project.

But even with an approved site, the number of things that have to go right for any U.S. company to risk building a nuclear plant is staggering. According to Taylor, these include strong electric demand growth, high gas prices to make competing gas generation less attractive and pre-approval of new reactor designs.

A spokesman says Entergy is looking for a selection of advanced designs in the 1,000-Mw range or larger that are certified and available to build. Entergy’s proposal would allow for a plant up to 1,350 Mw, larger than some approved designs.

ESP is meant to make building new plants easier by allowing the three-year siting process to be carried out ahead of time. A company with a permit in hand will face only a five-year process to get a construction and operating license.

But many observers say DOE’s target of getting a first new plant launched by 2010 is very optimistic. If nothing else, the applications will test whether the new siting process itself is workable and predictable. With no actual plants on the table, NRC officials say they will review a "parameter envelope" at each site that would fit several potential designs.

The three proposed sites at Louisa, Va., Clinton, Ill., and Port Gibson, Miss., already host nuclear plants, and initial meetings in those communities have raised no objections. But Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watch Project at the antinuclear lobbying group Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Washington, D.C., says NIRS fears that companies may use the "generic" EPS proceedings to short-circuit environmental impact reviews so they will not be brought up later, when companies seek construction and operating permits.