NUSTART NEWS RELEASE — Washington — America needs a plentiful supply of electricity at an affordable cost and with a very low environmental impact – and nuclear energy is one of the few options available to achieve all three ends, the president of NuStart Energy Development, LLC said today.
Her comments came as the Department of Energy today announced it has selected NuStart Energy Development, LLC’s proposal as an award candidate to receive 50-50 matching funds under its Nuclear Power 2010 program. The program is part of an overall DOE strategy to ensure energy stability and fuel diversity by encouraging power generation advances in nuclear, coal, wind and solar.
“Nuclear is an expandable and dependable source of power generation with minimal environmental impact and very stable production costs. It has the added advantage of increasing America’s energy independence and energy security,” said Marilyn Kray, NuStart Energy president.
The NuStart Energy consortium includes nine nuclear operating companies that operate 60 nuclear reactors – 58 percent of the country’s 103 nuclear power plants. Reactor vendors GE and Westinghouse are also participants in the consortium, making 11 companies in all.
“Twenty-seven new nuclear plants are being built in 10 countries around the world today but none are in the U.S.,” Ms. Kray said. “And almost all of them are using American nuclear reactor technology as their foundation. We need to ensure that nuclear generation continues its current contribution of providing 20 percent of electricity needs in the U.S.
“NuStart’s objective is to keep the nuclear option open. We want to address the challenges facing new nuclear investment and make nuclear a viable alternative for future generation development decisions. In part, this will be done by completing the design detail for the selected reactor technologies, and demonstrating that a Construction and Operating License (COL) can be obtained without undue delay and at a predictable cost.”
Ms. Kray also praised Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, for his leadership in helping the nation recognize the promising potential of nuclear energy and specifically his support of Congressional funding of DOE’s Nuclear Power 2010 program.
DOE’s selection of NuStart means the two parties now will begin negotiating a Cooperative Agreement outlining a detailed program of engineering and licensing work and the cost sharing involved. Those talks are expected to take several weeks.
The formation of the NuStart consortium and the willingness of the participants to provide 50-50 matching funds demonstrate the nuclear power industry’s commitment to nuclear energy.
NuStart Energy will be completing for the first time the detailed engineering design work needed for a comprehensive COL application. While none of the consortium companies has committed to build a new nuclear plant, if the NRC grants the license, any qualified company or group of companies could then be authorized by NuStart to use the license to build a new nuclear plant.
Such a decision would be based on many factors late this decade, including power market conditions and projections, competing fuel prices, the regulatory environment at the time, the status of permanent used fuel storage and other factors.
Members of NuStart Energy consortium are:
- Constellation Energy, Baltimore, MD
- Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC
- EDF International North America, Washington, DC, the U.S subsidiary of the large French electric utility
- Entergy Nuclear, Jackson, MS
- Exelon Generation, Philadelphia, PA
- Florida Power & Light Company, Juno Beach, FL
- Progress Energy, Raleigh, NC
- Southern Company, Atlanta, GA
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, TN
- GE Energy, Atlanta, GA
- Westinghouse Electric Co., Pittsburgh, PA