NRC ACCEPTS PARTIAL APPLICATION
FOR NEW REACTOR AT CALVERT CLIFFS
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the environmental portion of a combined license (COL) application for an Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant near Lusby, Md. This application from UniStar is the third COL the agency has accepted for review.

“We need more information to set out a full review schedule, but UniStar has assembled enough environmental data for the staff to get started,” said Bill Borchardt, Director of the NRC’s Office of New Reactors. “The staff expects the entire review for the Calvert Cliffs application will continue into 2011.”

UniStar submitted the report and associated information July 13, 2007, and supplemented the report on Dec. 14, 2007. The report is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/col.html .  Agency regulations allow an applicant to submit one part of a COL application up to 18 months before submitting the remainder to the NRC.  A COL application has two basic elements, a safety analysis report and an environmental report, and the agency expects the Calvert Cliffs safety analysis in March of this year. UniStar’s environmental report also includes siting and administrative information required by NRC regulations.

Unistar is applying for a license to build and operate an EPR at the Calvert Cliffs site, approximately 40 miles south of Annapolis.  The EPR is a large pressurized water reactor of evolutionary design, with a design output of approximately 1,600 MWe.  The EPR’s designer, Areva, filed an application Dec. 11, 2007 to certify the design, which is currently under construction at the Olkiluoto site in Finland. The EPR application, minus proprietary or security-related details, is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/design-cert/epr.html.

Docketing the Calvert Cliffs environmental report does not indicate whether the Commission will approve or reject the entire application. The agency will announce an opportunity for the public to participate in a hearing on the full application once UniStar submits its safety analysis and that submission passes its initial check.  

The NRC is currently reviewing COL applications for the South Texas Project site in Texas and the Bellefonte site in Alabama.  The agency is also conducting acceptance checks on COL applications for the North Anna site in Virginia and the Lee site in South Carolina.  The agency expects an additional 14 applications in 2008. Information about the new reactor licensing process is available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactor-licensing.html .

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008