Nuclear interests anticipate future growth

In this story: Water and gravity Terrorist-proof reactor? Critics skeptical RELATED STORIES, SITES

By David George
CNN

(CNN) -- The Bush administration's recent suggestion that more attention be paid to nuclear power has drawn anew some old lines of contention between nuclear advocates and their opponents.

Officials from different nuclear power interests say their companies are ready to move forward with reactors' design and construction since the administration said nuclear power might help cut greenhouse-effect gases caused by conventional power plants.

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Critics of nuclear power, meanwhile, claim that those proposals are potentially disastrous.

As the arguments continue, some nuclear interests appear ready to take their plans from drawing board to construction site.

Water and gravity

Westinghouse Electric Corp. has won approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a 600 megawatt generator, dubbed the AP600.

The reactor would rely on the cooling properties of water, said Howard Bruschi, chief technology officer for Westinghouse Electric, builder of about half the world's 435 operating nuclear power plants.

In the event of an accident, he said, water would flow automatically into the AP600's containment vessel from a series of huge tanks. When it touched the reactor, the water would boil, creating steam. Billowing upward, the steam would reach the ceiling of the containment building enclosing the reactor, where it would condense to water, Bruschi said.

The water would drain down -- gravity pulling the water back to ground level -- and cool the reactor as it dropped, he said.

"That whole cycle will just continue indefinitely," Bruschi said. "Eventually the plant will just shut down."

Westinghouse said it is seeking clients for the AP600 around the world.

Terrorist-proof reactor?

Another corporation, meanwhile, proposes a different design.

Exelon Corp., a Chicago, Illinois-based holding company created when Commonwealth Edison and PECO Energy merged, is promoting a reactor that it says would stymie terrorists hoping to use spent fuel for weapons.

Working with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (Westinghouse Electric's parent company) and Eskom, a South African firm, Exelon is backing development of a pebble bed modular reactor, or PBMR.

The PBMR would be fueled by 310,000 uranium-infused spheres the size of tennis balls, mixed with 100,000 spheres made of plain graphite, according to plans. The spent fuel spheres would be so depleted at the end of a reactor's cycle that they would be useless to potential terrorists, backers claim.

The PBMR would be cooled with helium. If the gas got lost in an accident, the reactor would shut itself down and "cool off like a cup of coffee," said Corbin McNeill, Exelon's chairman.

Exelon and its partners hope to get approval from the South African government to build a PBMR in that country. The reactor's proponents would ask the NRC to approve the design later, Exelon said.

Critics skeptical

Not everyone is impressed by the descriptions of new reactors.

Paul Gunter, who monitors nuclear developments for the Washington-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said renewed interest in nuclear power would mean the renewal of some problems related to nuclear energy.

He outlined three possible threats: catastrophic accidents; release of radioactivity; and the proliferation of nuclear weapons material.

Nuclear proponents want the Bush administration to create a permanent storage spot for high-level nuclear waste, said McNeill.

Industry critics say the most likely site for such a facility --- Yucca Mountain in Nevada --- is unsuitable because of potential volcanic activity nearby.

The Yucca Mountain site represents "not a technological solution (but) a politically expedient course the industry seeks to take so they can continue generating nuclear waste," said Paul Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

There are 103 commercial nuclear power generators operating in the U.S. The country gets about one-fifth of its electricity from nuclear power, though federal government hasn't licensed any new plants since the 1970s.

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
FEMA: Fact Sheet on Nuclear Power Emergencies
AP600
Exelon
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)
Nuclear Energy Institute

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