nuclear-news

Nuclear Regulatory Commission to refuse licensing for Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor

Experts: NRC Licensing Board Expected Friday To Strike Down Calvert
Cliffs Nuclear Reactor Project, Market Watch,  WASHINGTON, July 26, 2012  — End to Former “Flagships” of Sputtering U.S. “Nuclear Renaissance”: Foreign Ownership Rules to Block Licensing of Calvert Cliffs 3 in MD, Nine Mile Point 3 in NY, and South Texas Project.

Experts said today that they expect the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board to announce Friday that it
will deny a license to the Calvert Cliffs 3 nuclear reactor project in
Maryland.

The same foreign ownership issues blocking the Calvert Cliffs 3
license also would effectively kill the pending nuclear reactor
projects at Nine Mile Point 3 in New York State and the South Texas
Nuclear Project, according to the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service (NIRS).
NIRS indicated that it has not been notified in advance by the NRC of
the specific rulings but indicated that the handwriting has been on
the wall for months for the foreign-controlled Calvert Cliffs 3
project, which has been unable find a U.S. partner in order to escape
the foreign-ownership controls.

NIRS Executive Director Michael Mariotte said: “The expected NRC
decision will be a blow to the nuclear industry generally, which is
seeing viable new reactor orders fade away into the horizon. The first
applicant beyond Calvert Cliffs 3 to be affected will be Nine Mile
Point 3, also owned by UniStar. That project has been on hold pending
the outcome of the Calvert Cliffs 3 proceeding. It will not proceed.
Also greatly affected will be the South Texas Nuclear Project. Just
four short years ago, Calvert Cliffs and South Texas were the
flagships of the nuclear renaissance. In the summer of 2007, Calvert
Cliffs became the first partial applicant for a new reactor license in
30 years. It was followed a few weeks later by South Texas, which
became the first applicant to file a full license application. Now,
both projects have failed.”

Former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford, currently adjunct professor of
nuclear and public policy at the Vermont Law School, said: “Whatever
the NRC Licensing Board decides with regard to the foreign ownership
issue tomorrow, the proposed reactors at Calvert Cliffs and South
Texas are not going to be built in the foreseeable future. These units
were never economic, not from the day that their NRC applications were
first filed in 2007-2008, when they were hailed as the flagships of a
‘nuclear renaissance’. The reactors always cost too much compared to
available alternatives. They depended on massive subsidy from
taxpayers and/or customers, subsidies that aren’t going to be
forthcoming and on climate change policies that have not been
adopted.”
Attorney Robert V. Eye, representing the intervenors opposing the
licensing of the South Texas Project, said: “This is big news for the
South Texas Project. South Texas 3 & 4 are dependent on money from
Japan-based Toshiba. The applicant, NINA, maintains that the Toshiba
financial support is in the form of loans that do not violate the
foreign ownership prohibitions. But loans come with strings attached
and, In this case, those strings create a relationship where Toshiba
controls the project.”

In November 2008, NIRS filed a contention with the NRC that the
Calvert Cliffs project violates the Atomic Energy Act’s prohibition
against foreign ownership, control or domination of a U.S. nuclear
reactor.

The applicant for Calvert Cliffs is UniStar Nuclear. In November 2010,
Electricite de France (EDF) became the sole owner of UniStar Nuclear.
On April 6, 2011, the NRC staff determined that UniStar is ineligible
to receive a construction license because of EDF’s 100 percent control
of UniStar. On April 18, 2011, the Licensing Board issued a show cause
order to UniStar, asking why the board should not therefore rule in
favor of NIRS on the foreign ownership contention, deny a license and
end the proceeding.,,,,
UniStar appears to have made no progress in enticing a U.S. partner to
join it in this ill-fated project. It is for these reasons that NIRS
now believes that the likeliest outcome is that the Licensing Board
now is on the verge of granting summary disposition of the foreign
ownership contention in its favor, and will issue that rarest of
decisions–an actual denial of a license to a nuclear reactor.

The Licensing Board orders will be posted on NIRS website (
http://www.nirs.org ) as soon as they are released.

ABOUT NIRS

The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) was founded nearly
35 years ago to be the national information and networking center for
citizens and environmental activists concerned about nuclear power,
radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues. For more
information, visit http://www.nirs.org .

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of today’s news event will be
available on the Web at http://www.nirs.org as of 3 p.m. EDT on July
26, 2012.

SOURCE Nuclear Information and Resource Service
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/experts-nrc-licensing-board-expected-friday-to-strike-down-calvert-cliffs-nuclear-reactor-project-2012-07-26

July 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA