Application for Bell Bend nuclear power plant
13 October 2008
A subsidiary of PPL Corporation has submitted the 17th application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a combined construction and operating licence (COL). The firm is seeking a federal loan guarantee for the project.
The NRC licensing review of Bell Bend nuclear power plant, as it would be called, is expected to take between three and four years and will include public input. It is based on a 1600 MWe Areva EPR, which is in the process of design certification by the NRC and is under construction in Finland, France and China.
The Bell Bend plant would be part of the initial family of four proposed by Unistar Nuclear Energy (UNE), a strategic joint venture between Constellation and Electricité de France (EdF) to build and operate a fleet of EPR-based power plants in the USA and Canada.
PPL hope to realise Bell Bend near the existing two unit station at Susquehanna in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, of which it owns 90%. That facility currently comprises two boiling water reactors with a combined generation of 2360 MWe.
PPL also said it had submitted the first part of an application for a federal load guarantee for the plant to the US Department of Energy. The second part will be submitted before the December deadline, the company announced.
PPL will not make a final decision regarding whether to go ahead with the plant for several years. The decision will depend on the NRC review, on securing the federal loan guarantee and a variety of other factors, including attracting additional investment and on the company's projections for the power market.