Federal Board Clears Way for Preliminary Work on New Nuclear Reactors (first in 30 years)

http://www.gpb.org/news/2009/08/18/federal-board-clears-way-for-preliminary-work-on-nuclear-reactors

The new nuclear regulator approval process streamlines creation of 3rd gen reactors. Previous reactors were custom built and had to be certified every step of the way. When requirements changed every single change had to be certified.

The new process requires only 3 certifications
1) Preliminary site certification - this board allows NRC to provide preliminary permit.
2) Plant certification - already done. The AP1000 is a certified 3rd gen reactor.
3) Final certification

Instead of plants being custom built they MUST be exactly the same. Every AP1000 plants will be exactly the same in the United States. Every switch, light bublb, doorknob exactly the parts as certified in the plant certification.

The goal is to cut construction costs by standardizing the reactors vs custom built reactors.

This is one of 26 reactors currently pending. Most should have preliminary site certification in next 2 years and construction starts shortly after that. Estimated timeframe for construction and final cert if about 5 years.

I have come to favor newer and better nuclear power plants, especially after the world scientific community has come to recognize the threat of increased carbon output in regard to both global warming and the even more frightening effects on the Earth's oceans.

I do hope the third generation is built better than the earlier ones. One of the reasons why I remember older nuclear power plants costing so much was because both the utilities' engineers and the old Atomic Energy Commission's regulators got inspired to make hideously expensive design revisions while construction was underway, not only delaying those plants' completion, but costing utilities and their customers billions of dollars.

I am glad this new phase is underway now instead of earlier. I trust the Democrats to provide far better regulatory oversight and enforcement far more than I did the 'What, me worry' mindset of the ousted Boosh regime.

Not to mention the clean power.

Of course, I expect this thread to be flooded by OMGZ TEH NOOKS WILL KILL US ALL!!1!!1 crowd soon.