Duke Energy, one of 10 utility members of NuStart Energy Development, submitted a combined construction and operating license (COL) application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a proposed two-unit nuclear station in Cherokee County, S.C. The Duke application uses TVA’s Bellefonte COL application as the Westinghouse AP1000 reference application. As a result of the industry’s commitment to plant standardization, NuStart Energy, the nation’s largest consortium of nuclear energy companies, and TVA, the nation’s largest public power utility, submitted an application to the NRC in October, that would serve as the reference COL application for the Westinghouse dual-unit AP1000 design. Most of the content of the application can be used by other nuclear utilities, such as Duke, that plan to use the AP1000 technology to develop their own site-specific license applications more efficiently. The reference application was developed using a design-centered review concept that focuses the industry’s engineering and technical expertise on the specific reactor design that utilities are pursuing. The design-centered working group for the Westinghouse AP1000 is comprised of TVA, Progress Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Co., South Carolina Electric and Gas, and Westinghouse, each of these companies is a member of the NuStart consortium.

An article from Mechanical Engineering discusses renewed activity in nuclear licensing

NuStart shares the views expressed in the article "Nuclear Power is the Only Green Solution" by James Lovelock. The “father” of global warming notes that we have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilization is in imminent danger.