Detroit Edison files with NRC to build new nuke
The utility applied for a combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, to build a 1,500 MW unit using GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design. Detroit Edison currently operates Fermi-2, a 1,217-MW pressurized water reactor, at a site 35 miles south of Detroit.
DTE said "the NRC estimates that it could take up to four years to review the application and issue a license." An initial acceptance review should be complete in 60 days, it said.
The utility has not yet decided whether to build the new nuclear unit, but DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Anthony Earley said filing for the COL this year "maintains eligibility for a portion of $6-billion [in] tax credits should the plant be built." Congress approved these tax credits in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
DTE's analysis "so far shows that nuclear power will, over the long term, be the most cost-effective baseload option for our customers, Earley said.
"Our analysis indicates the ESBWR, compared to the other advanced reactor designs, will have the lowest cost overs its full lifecycle," he added.
"We expect nuclear to remain the low-cost option, but we will continue to evaluate nuclear against other resources and will commit to proceeding with construction only at the right time and at the right cost," Earley said.
He criticized the "hybrid market structure that places the state's utilities in a partially regulated old model and a partially competitive new model. This structure fails to provide the certainty required for power plant investment that is critical to Michigan's future," he said. "Investors want reasonable assurance that these large investments can be recovered."
Related News

Germany’s renewable energy dreams derailed by cheap Russian gas, electricity grid expansion woes
BERLIN - On a blazing hot August day on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, a few hundred tourists skip the beach to visit the “Fascination Offshore Wind” exhibition, held in the port of Mukran at the Arkona wind park. They stand facing the sea, gawking at white fiberglass blades, which at 250 feet are longer than the wingspan of a 747 aircraft. Those blades, they’re told, will soon be spinning atop 60 wind-turbine towers bolted to concrete pilings driven deep into the seabed 20 miles offshore. By early 2019, Arkona is expected to generate 385 megawatts, enough electricity to power 400,000…