Southern Nuclear Operating Company (SNC) had applied for two combined licences at the Vogtle site in Georgia. In a 4-1 vote, the Commission found the staff’s review adequate to make the necessary regulatory safety and environmental findings, clearing the way for the NRC’s Office of New Reactors to issue licences.
The Commission imposed a condition on the licences requiring inspection and testing of squib valves, important components of the new reactors’ passive cooling system.
The NRC staff is expected to issue the licences within 10 business days. The licences will authorise SNC to build and operate two AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle site, adjacent to the company’s existing reactors approximately 42km southeast of Augusta. NRC construction inspectors have been on site since April 2010, examining SNC’s activities to prepare the plant’s foundation under a limited work authorisation the NRC issued in 2009.
SNC submitted its licence application in March 2008, and supplemented the application on in October 2009. The NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) independently reviewed aspects of the application that concern safety, as well as a draft of the staff’s final safety evaluation report. The ACRS provided the results of its review to the Commission in a report in January 2011. The NRC completed its environmental review and issued a final supplemental environmental impact statement for the Vogtle licences in March 2011. The NRC completed and issued the final safety evaluation report in August.
The NRC certified Westinghouse’s amended AP1000 design on 30 December 2011. The AP1000 is a 1,100MW electric pressurised -water reactor that includes passive safety features that would cool down the reactor after an accident without the need for electricity or human intervention.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
