Maryland picked for potential reactor

Maryland picked for potential reactor

	Published : Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:35 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - A joint venture between Constellation Energy Group Inc. and French nuclear power giant Areva Group that aims to build nuclear power plants in the U.S. said Monday it picked a site on the Chesapeake Bay as its first location for a potential new reactor.

Baltimore-based Constellation and the Bethesda, Md.-based U.S. arm of France's Areva said their Unistar Nuclear joint venture plans to file an application by next year for a new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in southern Maryland.

That plant, located in Lusby, Md., already has two reactors and is owned by Constellation.

However, the companies cautioned that the decision to file an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the middle of next March is not a firm decision to build the plant.

Amid predictions of a revived nuclear power industry, companies including Duke Energy Corp., Progress Energy Inc. and Dominion Resources Inc. have notified regulators that they plan to file applications for new reactors starting this year. Based on these and other notifications, the NRC expects to receive 19 applications for 28 new reactors over the next two years. Companies need to file applications by the end of 2008 to be eligible for financial incentives for new nuclear plants included in the 2005 federal energy bill.

Earlier this month, UniStar signed an agreement with St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. to prepare an application for a new reactor.

UniStar is competing with General Electric Co., Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric unit and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to develop new nuclear reactors in the U.S.

Last week, New Jersey-based NRG Energy Inc. said it reached an agreement with a Japanese power company to provide technical assistance on its plans for two planned GE reactors at a site in Texas.

Interest in new nuclear power plants waned after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. The Watts Bar plant in Spring City, Tenn., was the last plant to come on line in 1996 -- 23 years after it was first proposed. No new orders for reactors have been placed since 1973.