The nuclear energy industry made good on its intent to begin filing new-reactor applications in 2007. By the end of the year, four companies had submitted full combined construction and operating license (COL) applications and one company had submitted an application for safety approval of its advanced reactor design.

The latest COL application came from Duke Energy Corp. in December for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the William States Lee site in Cherokee County, S.C. This is the second application for AP1000 reactors; the first was submitted in October by the NuStart Energy Consortium and the Tennessee Valley Authority for two reactors at the Bellefonte site in Alabama.

Also in December, AREVA submitted an application for federal approval of its state-of-the-art reactor design, the U.S. EPR. Design certification allows an applicant to obtain pre-approval of the safety of a standard plant design, before a company builds the design. Resolving design issues before construction should reduce licensing uncertainties during construction.

This year, several additional companies are likely to file COL applications with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The regulatory process is well under way for the first full COL application, submitted in September by NRG Energy for two new General Electric Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) in Texas. In November, the NRC accepted the application for review, confirming that the document is complete and technically sufficient. The agency now can begin a detailed review.

Along with Duke Energy’s application, the NRC is conducting acceptance reviews on COL applications for TVA’s Bellefonte site and Dominion’s North Anna site in Virginia. The NRC has about 60 days from submittal to determine an application’s sufficiency for review.

This initial acceptance review has become an increasingly important component of the NRC’s revamped licensing process, as it helps the agency set a schedule for a full technical review. A complete, high-quality application is the foundation for a review schedule that commits both the NRC and the applicant to certain milestones, said David Matthews, director of the NRC’s New-Reactor Licensing Division.

“The acceptance review is the equivalent of ringing the bell on a horse race,” Matthews said. “We view it as a very significant step.”

The NRC has not yet issued a review schedule for the NRG Energy application; it is seeking further information from the company.

The schedule for each application review will vary, Matthews said, but the NRC has estimated that reviews and mandatory hearings could take about 42 months. Reviewing the first COL application for the ABWR will require about 86,000 worker-hours. Subsequent applications for the same reactor design will focus on site-specific safety and environmental issues—because design issues should have been resolved in the reference COL—and should require about 50,000 hours.

As more companies move ahead with plans to build new nuclear plants, the NRC will need to conduct simultaneous reviews of multiple applications, some of which will be based on reactor designs that have not yet been certified.

This is why a “design-centered” review approach is essential, Matthews said. “COL applications must rely on certified designs—or designs that have been submitted for certification—because it enables the NRC to make one decision for multiple applications. This is the only way to conduct reviews in a timely manner,” he said.

Even so, the thousands of worker-hours that application reviews require could place a strain on the NRC staff. “Ensuring acquisition and maintenance of a highly qualified staff to support our application review schedule estimates” is one of the challenges facing the NRC this year, Matthews said. He added that he feels confident the agency will reach its staffing goal of 485 full-time employees for new-plant licensing this year.

The NRC could review 20 new nuclear plant license applications over the next two years. Meeting expectations for timely reviews will require “frequent, open communication” with the applicants, Matthews said.

“We’re prepared for this challenge,” he said. “We’ll conduct reviews in a timely manner, provided we receive applications standardized around the design-centered approach.”