Power Engineering - Detroit Edison keeps nuclear option open

13 February 2007 -- DTE Energy's CEO announced that the company will prepare a license application for construction and operation of a new nuclear power plant in Newport, Mich., on the site of Detroit Edison's nuclear-fueled Fermi 2 Power Plant.

Chairman and CEO Anthony F. Earley Jr. cautioned that proceeding with a license application does not mean the company has decided to build to a nuclear plant.

He noted that the lengthy licensing process requires the company to begin preparing the application now. "Given the four- to five-year timeframe for the federal licensing process, and the five- to six-year construction period, we need to take this step immediately to have any chance of having a new plant operating in the next decade."

By moving ahead with the application now, the company also preserves the potential to take advantage of financial incentives for new nuclear construction under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Earley said the company also is evaluating several options to meet the projected electrical demand, including coal-fired generation. No new baseload power plant has been built in Michigan since the late 1980s. Detroit Edison said it will pursue increased energy efficiency initiatives and development of renewable energy sources, but, he said, "We will never run an auto assembly line or a cold-rolled steel mill using windmills or solar panels. You need big baseload nuclear and coal power plants to keep them running."

Detroit Edison said environmental factors dictate that nuclear power be considered among the options to meet future demand for power.

Earley noted that public acceptance of nuclear power is higher now than at any time in recent decades. "The superb performance of our nation's 103 operating nuclear plants is another reason to revisit this technology. With plants operating at or near record levels during the past six years, we're more comfortable with nuclear power. It's proven itself clean, safe, reliable and affordable. And that is with a generation of plants designed in the 1960s and 1970s."

He added that the next generation of plants builds on the design and operating experience of the current fleet. "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already certified new standardized advanced-plant designs for the U.S.," he said. "These next-generation nuclear plants incorporate features designed to make them simpler, safer and less costly to build and operate. Some of these simplified plants have been built overseas in a fraction of the time it took to build our current plants."

Earley emphasized the state's current regulatory structure contains stumbling blocks to new plant construction, and some important changes are needed before Detroit Edison or any company will invest billions of dollars in any new base-load power plant.

Despite the fact that the company has not decided to build a plant, the application process requires that a specific site be identified. A number of factors have lead to determination that the 1,100-acre site of the Fermi 2 Power Plant would be the best location for a second nuclear power plant, if the company decides to build one. Those factors include access to the transmission grid, state-of-the-art on-site employee training facilities, the opportunity to share manpower and expertise between two plants and support from the local community.

Detroit Edison has sought bids from several firms to assist the company with preparation of a "combined license application" and expects to have the document ready to submit to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the end of 2008. The NRC would be expected to decide if it will issue the license in two to three years after receiving the application.

Detroit Edison is an investor-owned electric utility serving 2.2 million customers in Southeastern Michigan and a subsidiary of DTE Energy, a Detroit-based energy company.

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