RE: More on "informed dialogue"

["Carroll,Raymond" <carrollrg@pgdp.usec.com>]

In reference to the "First:" point below, it is true the US didn't have a
standardized design at first.  Companies later tried for standardized design
but the NRC 'effectively' killed that try.  Two I am aware of are:

	1. Duke Power tried to build Oconee Units 1,2 and 3 identical.  Duke
was even it's own AE as I recall.  The NRC had three different groups of NRC
personnel reviewing the design, one group for each unit.  As a result the
NRC ended up having different requirements for all three units which caused
design variations.

	2. The SNUPPS plants including Wolf Creek, Callaway, and a couple
others were an effort at standardized design.  Some were cancelled because
of the regulatory problems getting the standardized design approved and the
one's that were built ended up licensing the design separately (I'm pretty
sure).

There was talk last year of progress in getting a standardized design
approved, and I believe I read something to the effect the NRC was
cooperating.  If there is a future for nuclear power in the US then
standardization needs to be approved.

Just a little history.

Ray Carroll
carrollrg@pgdp.usec.com
________________________________________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Tschaeche [mailto:antatnsu@pacbell.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2000 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: More on "informed dialogue"

> First of all, the AEC consistently promised too much -- more than it
> could deliver -- in terms both of cost and of safety.  Nuclear power was
> touted as wondrously cheap; it turned out not to be, and some credulous
> utilities, and their ratepayers, have paid a heavy price.

There are several reasons for the high cost of nuclear power, much higher
than the AEC thought it was going to be.

First:  Each nuclear plant had to have an individual design.  The US didn't
do what France did and establish a standard design for all its plants.  The
result is that plant design had to be included in each plant, thus making
the US plants inherently more expensive than those in France.  The architect
engineers made lots of money in that system.  But the plants cost more.

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