Westinghouse reactor gets regulator looks

MONROEVILLE, Pa., May 30 (UPI) -- Westinghouse is revising its AP1000 nuclear reactor with U.S. regulators as it attempts to streamline the reactor for worldwide operations.

"The revision includes design changes to the AP1000 requested by our customers and developed by Westinghouse as part of design finalization," said Ed Cummins, vice president for regulatory affairs and standardization at Westinghouse Nuclear Power Plants. "We're happy to be working with our customers through NuStart to bring the AP1000 to design finalization and, ultimately, closer to new nuclear build," Cummins said in a company release.

NuStart is a consortium of nuclear companies and suppliers that are pushing new nuclear technology through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's new licensing process.

The NRC certified the AP1000 in 2005, but Westinghouse has made changes to reduce cost and financial risk and increase safety, the company says.

The approval process is also being pushed through European and Chinese markets.

There is a global nuclear boom expected as demand for electricity continues to increase. Adrian Bull, Westinghouse's Britain stakeholder relations manager, said the goal is to have "one and only one design" of the AP1000. He told World Nuclear News, a product of the global industry's trade arm, the World Nuclear Association, that the company recently submitted an application for British approval. He also said within the next "few weeks" China and Westinghouse will sign a contract for four AP1000 reactors in Sanmen and Haiyan, China. Those reactors would be the first AP1000s to start producing electricity.

Last week U.S. and Chinese nuclear energy regulators signed a memorandum of cooperation on the AP1000.

"As China moves forward on these projects the information they generate we will certainly look at to see what parts of that will be useful to our inspectors" if the reactors are licensed and built in the United States, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said.

The NRC expects applications for 19 new plants over the next three years, and 12 of the 28 reactors in those plants will be AP1000.