Two AP1000 reactors proposed in Levy County, Fla., passed a critical environmental review Friday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers announced they have issued a positive final environmental impact statement for the project near Progress Energy’s existing Crystal River plant. The Corps will consider the EIS in issuing a permit under federal laws regulating water quality, while the NRC will include the document in its consideration of a combined license for the reactors.
Nuclear regulators were expected to issue a final safety evaluation report on the project soon, based on a projected schedule by the NRC. The agency’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is in the process of considering a challenge to the NRC’s environmental review. After those steps are addressed, a mandatory hearing will be the final step before an NRC commission vote on the license.
Progress applied for the COL in mid-2008, seeking to build two units of the Westinghouse AP1000 design that recently achieved regulatory approval and is currently under construction at two other plants. Projections for the Levy County project place the cost at between $17 billion and $22 billion, with completion of the first unit in 2021.