New Reactors Get Key Backers

[FBaggins]

WASHINGTON—Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric Co. unit earned two key votes of confidence Friday on the nuclear-reactor design slated to be used at a dozen new nuclear power-generating units in the U.S.

Two of the five members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including the chairman, endorsed the AP-1000 reactor design Friday. The positions of the three other commissioners haven't yet been made public.

Chairman Gregory Jaczko's affirmative vote was particularly good news for backers of the new nuclear reactors. In May, Mr. Jaczko said the AP-1000 reactor had unresolved issues, including its shield building, and said Westinghouse needed to provide more information before the NRC approved the design. Power companies need approval for a reactor's design before they can secure a license to operate a plant using that reactor.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577088801504335994.html

The approval is now essentially a done deal. The vote appears to be 1:1 on whether to set aside the normal 30-day period before the rule is effective (though Jaczko is apparently open to the possibility). So the only question is whether construction can begin in earnest very shortly... or must wait an additional couple months.

[sam11111]

1. long term waste cost..dont cool in hot weather..last only 20?Yrs

Quakes, tornadoes, human error...cancer in fuel miners lungs...subsidy cost...

All absent or minimal damage to environ.... with solar and wind

[Bob Wallace]

2. "unresolved issues, including its shield building"

But that's OK.

We don't have to worry about someone crashing an airliner into a reactor. That sort of stuff would never happen.

[FBaggins]

3. That's what he said back in May.

Which is why this action occurs now rather than months ago.

The "issues" are no longer "unresolved".

"The changes to the shield building design and the aircraft impact assessment ensures that the shield building can accommodate the impact from a large commercial aircraft"

[DCKit]

4. FBaggins, reluctant newcuelur backer.

OMG, I'm NOT so or board with you.

[FBaggins]

5. When have I ever been reluctant?

And was the second "sentence" supposed to be in English?

[DCKit]

7. OMG, you got me so bad!!!! I'm devastaded.

Probably never post on a Newcuelur thread again.

[leveymg]

6. You're forgetting one thing, Baggins. The real backers, the ones with money.

Obama, a send-up by Exelon, can pack the NRC Board all he wants with nuclear enthusiasts. But it's the "approval" of the other sort of backers -- the ones on Wall Street -- that actually count before you can start building $10 billion plants.