The Missouri Electric Alliance led by Ameren Missouri and Westinghouse Electric Company have announced the formation of utility participation group, NexStart SMR Alliance. A consortium of prospective and current nuclear plant owners and operators, including cooperative, municipal and investor-owned electric service providers and public enterprises, the Alliance will work to advance energy security.
Recognizing the importance of advancing nuclear energy in helping secure clean, safe and reliable electricity in the future by deploying the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR), members of the Alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
Initial members of the NexStart SMR Alliance includes Ameren Missouri, Dominion Virginia Power, FirstEnergy Generation, Exelon Generation Company, Tampa Electric Company, Savannah River National Laboratory, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation and Missouri Alliance members; Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., The Empire District Electric Company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Inc. and Kansas City Power and Light Company. Other utilities and enterprises are considering NexStart SMR Alliance membership to support potential deployment of a Westinghouse SMR at Ameren’s central Missouri Callaway Energy Center.
The Alliance will support Westinghouse in its application to secure Department of Energy (DOE) SMR investment funds. The funds will be awarded to SMR projects with the potential to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and be commercially operational by 2022.
The cost-share agreements provide a total investment of an estimated USD$900million, with 50% provided by the private industry and will span a five-year period, subject to Congressional appropriations. A final decision on the awarding of the investments fund by the DOE is expected in the late summer of 2012.
The Westinghouse SMR is a 225MWe integral pressurized water reactor that utilizes passive safety systems and proven components and modular construction techniques, with all primary components located within the reactor vessel. All components are licensed AP1000 nuclear power plant designed. The AP1000 nuclear power plant design is the only Generation III+ reactor to receive NRC Design Certification. Four AP1000 units are currently being built in China with the first unit anticipated to be online in 2013 and four more units are being built in the United States which the first unit expected to be functional in 2016.