Next generation nuclear plant inches ahead 

The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission submitted to Congress a licensing plan for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Aug. 15, moving the Idaho-based project one small but important step forward.

  “The licensing strategy … provides a description of the ways in which current NRC light-water reactor licensing requirements need to be adapted for the NGNP project,” project development director Phillip C. Hildebrandt said in an email.

  The reason current licensing regulations need to be adapted is that the NGNP, being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory, would be a high temperature gas-cooled reactor capable of operating at temperatures of about 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. The majority of nuclear plants in the world are light-water reactors, using temperatures of about 600 degrees to drive turbines for electrical generation.

  While the high temperature gas-cooled reactor also produces electricity, its high heat can be used for supporting a host of industrial processes. The licensing plan submitted by DoE and NRC addresses industrial uses by calling for a public-private partnership, offering a shared-risk (and cost) means of commercializing high temperature reactor technology while providing industry with a cleaner, more efficient way to produce.

  “We have another energy need, this large industrial energy need for the refining of petroleum, in production of petrochemical products, chemicals for medicine, fertilizers – all of those things take a tremendous amount of energy,” Hildebrandt said in an interview. “That energy is today provided by burning fossil fuels, and the temperatures required are in general higher than those that can be provided by a light-water reactor.”

  But the project is still a long way from completion. While the licensing plan is an important step because it moves the project toward implementation, it’s a small step because modifying those regulations will require the development of guides, review plans, codes, standards and processes for oversight and inspection.

  The DoE and NRC say that alone could take five years and cost between $128 million and $149 million from fiscal year 2008-2018. The NGNP is expected to cost a total of $4.3 billion over the next 12 to 15 years, and regulators have set a schedule that calls for a license application filed in 2013, construction beginning in 2017 and completion by 2021. 

  Some industry watchers have doubted whether those benchmarks can be met, as funding from the DoE for the project has fallen to about $30 million a year. Hildebrandt said Congress gave the NGNP $100 million late last year – not enough itself to ensure the project finishes on schedule – but added he’s confident strong Congressional support will translate into higher funding in fiscal year 2009.

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