Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (200997)	4/10/2007 9:52:03 PM
From: Snowshoe	Respond to of 793739

>>We need to go about it like the French do, every plant is the same.<< France is a small country with a highly-centralized government. Not likely the USA will go that route. Here's a company that's shifting away from coal toward nuclear power... TXU Picks Mitsubishi Design for Reactors biz.yahoo.com Wednesday March 14, 1:14 pm ET By Kozo Mizoguchi, Associated Press Writer U.S. Electric Utility TXU Corp. Picks Reactor Technology From Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Ind. TOKYO (AP) -- Texas power company TXU Corp. has picked a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. design for up to three nuclear reactors that could be built in Texas. The nonbinding deal, announced Wednesday by Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, represents an understanding between the two companies that the Japanese company's technology will be used by TXU in any future nuclear power plants. It stops short of a multibillion-dollar commitment to order any reactors, TXU spokesman Tom Kleckner said. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' pressurized water reactor design, which would send about 1,600 megawatts of electricity to Texas' power grid, has not yet been approved by U.S. regulators. That process could take 3 1/2 to 5 years. And TXU would also need to complete the estimated 3 1/2-year process of obtaining a federal license to build and operate the reactors. TXU plans to build two new reactors at its existing Comanche Peak twin-reactor plant about 80 miles southwest of Dallas. The company also is considering two or three more reactors at an undisclosed site in Texas, according to Kleckner and a March 9 letter from TXU to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC expects Mitsubishi to apply for certification of the reactor design by early next year, said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. Four other reactor designs have already been approved for use in the U.S. TXU, the largest power operator in Texas, plans to open its new reactors between 2015 and 2020. The federal energy bill passed in 2005 promised financial incentives to companies that propose new nuclear reactors. Regulators expect to receive about 20 applications for new plants over the next three years with at least 30 new reactors. Most of those locations are expected to be in the Southeast. The first applications are expected to start coming in late this year. TXU announced Feb. 26 it had signed a deal to be acquired by private equity firms for $32 billion, in what would be what would be the largest private buyout in U.S. history. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Chicago alleging illegal insider trading in connection with the $69.25-per-share buyout deal led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group. The buyers have promised to drop plans for eight proposed coal-burning plants that were opposed by environmentalists and city leaders in Dallas and Houston. They will, however, try to go ahead with three other coal-fired plants proposed for central Texas. The 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania led to a virtual halt in new plant construction in the United States. There are now about 100 nuclear plants in the U.S., producing about 20 percent of the country's electricity. But fears of global warming and the rising cost of natural gas and coal may finally change the image of nuclear power. Shares of TXU dipped 28 cents to $62.73 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. AP Business Writer Alan Zibel in Washington contributed to this report.