Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000 reactor design is a step closer to winning Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval after revisions requested by the agency, the Toshiba Corp. (6502) unit said.
The agency this week will issue a final safety evaluation report on Westinghouse's AP1000 pressurized water reactor, the company said today in a statement. The commission may act on the decision early next year, an agency spokesman said.
"We're in the home stretch to receive final approval," Westinghouse Electric Chief Executive Officer Aris Candris said in the statement. "We're happy that the NRC technical staff has approved the amended design."
Utilities including Southern Co. (SO) of Atlanta and Scana Corp. (SCG) of Cayce, South Carolina, want to build reactors using the AP1000 design. The NRC notified Southern that it intends to complete the process to issue a license for construction and operation of the company's $14 billion reactors "around the end of 2011," the utility said Aug. 3 in a statement. The agency has received seven AP1000 applications since 2007.
The agency had certified the design in 2006, according to Westinghouse. It has since been amended to incorporate new NRC requirements, including being able to withstand the impact of a airplane crash. The safety report for the AP1000 includes the NRC staff's evaluation of design changes, the company said.
The safety report is a "significant milestone" in certifying the reactor's design, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said in an e-mail. It must be complete before the commission issues a license to build and operate the reactors, he said.
Decision 'Next Year'
The evaluation "is a technical staff document, it is not approval of the design," Burnell said. The five-member commission must certify the reactor design and a vote is expected "by the beginning of next year," he said.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said May 20 the agency needed more information from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse about the reactor before it would be approved. The company needed to complete studies showing how parts of the unit will perform during earthquakes and reactor accidents, according to the NRC.
Westinghouse gave the NRC "clarifications and minor corrections" about the reactor that don't affect safety, and there's "no material impact" on its design, according to a June 13 statement from the company.
