Nine Mile Point COL application review rescheduled

Monday, 16 February 2009

Unistar Nuclear Energy has asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay the review of its application for a combined construction and operating licence (COL) for a new reactor at the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant, while it concentrates on that for its Calvert Cliffs site.

Unistar Nuclear Energy (UNE) has asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to delay the review of its application for a combined construction and operating licence (COL) for a new reactor at the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant.

How Nine Mile Point would look with the addition of unit 3 (Image: Unistar)

Unistar a joint venture of Constellation Energy and Electricité de France's EDF Group, submitted the Nine Mile Point 3 application and associated information in at the end of September 2008. The application sought approval to build and operate an Areva-designed 1600 MWe EPR unit at the site near Oswego, New York State. The application was accepted for review in December 2008.

The company has not yet made a final decision on whether to build a new reactor at the Nine Mile Point site, which is already home to two boiling water reactors (BWRs).

In addition to Nine Mile Point unit 3, Unistar is working on three other EPR projects: Calvert Cliffs 3 in Maryland, Callaway 2 in Missouri and Bell Bend in Pennsylvania.

However, in a letter dated 9 February, Unistar and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Project requested that the NRC holds off starting its review of the Nine Mile Point COL application as Unistar would be focusing its resources on the COL application for the Calvert Cliffs site, the "lead" application for the EPR.

Unistar submitted the second half of the Calvert Cliffs COL application, comprising the safety analysis and related information, in March 2008, completing the partial submission lodged in July 2007. The first part of the application comprised the environmental report and was accepted for review, or 'docketed', in January 2008.

The NRC has cancelled environmental scoping meetings on the Nine Mile Point application planned for 25 February. The commission said that it has halted the scoping process but intends to restart it later in 2009. It said that it would determine a revised review schedule for Nine Mile Point 3 once Unistar provides additional information.