GE-Hitachi wins Nine Mile Point uprate contract
GE-Hitachi has won a $50 million contract to provide equipment and services for an extended power uprate (EPU) of unit 2 at Constellation Energy's Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant in the USA.
Nine Mile Point unit 2 is a boiling water reactor (BWR) of GE's BWR-5 design, with a GE turbine generator, and has a current output of 1148 MWe. It entered commercial operation in 1988, and received a 20-year operating licence extension in 2006. The planned EPU would add up to 158 MWe to its output.
The project will see GE-Hitachi perform engineering evaluations and help prepare the EPU licence amendment request for approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). GE Energy will provide its steam turbine "Dense Pack" engineering and equipment. Implementation of the two-phased EPU implementation is already under way with a completion target of 2012.
The uprate is "proof that EPUs continue to be a valuable investment for existing plants," said GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy president and CEO Andy White.
GE-Hitachi's press release notes that US nuclear utilities are taking proactive steps including comprehensive uprate projects to boost their output, and as a result nuclear plant designers are seeing an increase in demand for products and services to help utilities optimize their existing reactor fleets further into the future.
Further information
Constellation
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy
WNA's US Nuclear Power Industry information paper
