More nuclear power may be coming to Maryland.
Baltimore-based UniStar Nuclear, a joint enterprise between Constellation Energy Group and Bethesda-based AREVA Inc., announced Monday that it has picked a site next to Constellation Energy?s Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant for a combined construction and operating license application.
Choosing a location is the first step before UniStar can submit the COL application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ? but does not represent a commitment to construct a new plant at the Calvert Cliffs site.
“What [picking a spot] does is keep the licensing path on target so we can move forward,” UniStarspokesman Brian Meeley said.
Company president George Vanderheyden said in a statement that UniStar “continues its discussions with potential investors, partners and customers interested in new nuclear across the country.” The company announced an agreement for the development of a COL application with Missouri-based AmerenUE on April 5.
In the Calvert Cliffs reference application, to be submitted before March 15, 2008, UniStar will present “a highly standardized design,” Meeley said. Since UniStar is partnering with other businesses for the development of a standardized fleet of nuclear power plants across the United States, current and future partners can draw from the reference application. For example, a later application could contain up to 80 percent of the original reference document, and 20 percent original design, Meeley said.
“The UniStar model is that we?re standardized all the way down to carpets and wallpaper,” he said.
The application will feature the U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor based on AREVA?s advanced nuclear power plant already being built in Finland. An EPR is an “advanced model” based on light water reactor technology, said Penny Phelps, AREVA?s director of communications.
EPRs use 47 percent fewer valves, 16 percent fewer pumps and 50 percent fewer tanks than a typical plant. The design also allows for 10 percent lower operation costs and less uranium usage than current light water reactors.
“It will be easier to operate, consume less energy, but still put out the same amount of energy,” Phelps said. “Another bonus of this particular model is that it also looks at recycling and reprocessing fuel, some of the next things the U.S. is going to look at too.”
Meeley said if Constellation chooses to move forward, construction might not begin until 2011, “looking at a potentially operating plant in the 2015 time frame.”
