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25 March 2008 -- NRG Energy Inc. has formed Nuclear Innovation North America LLC, a company focused on marketing, siting, developing, financing and investing in new advanced design nuclear projects in select markets across North America, including the planned South Texas Project (STP) units 3 and 4 that NRG is developing with San Antonio, Texas' CPS Energy.
Toshiba Corp. will serve as the prime contractor on all of the company's projects and has agreed to partner with NRG on the new venture. Toshiba will invest $300 million in the company over the next six years and will receive a 12 percent equity ownership. Half of this investment will be to support STP 3 and 4 development. The other half will be focused on new projects and will help accelerate development and deployment of additional Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) projects in North America with other potential partners.
The company already is exploring potential sites and partners for additional units and anticipates providing a letter of intent to the NRC for at least one of the new projects by the end of 2008.
Toshiba has built two of the four ABWR units already commissioned in Japan. Since the NRC certified the ABWR design in 1997, two more units have begun operation in Japan. Nuclear Innovation North America intends to use the certified design, with only a limited number of changes to enhance safety and construction schedules, and file a revision to the combined license application (COLA) by this fall. Nuclear Innovation North America believes that the delay in licensing that is expected as a result of these revisions will be outweighed by the advantages in price and schedule certainty. Given the changes to the application, NRG anticipates STP units 3 and 4 will come online in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Steve Winn, NRG's Executive Vice President-Strategy and Nuclear Development will serve as Chief Executive Officer of Nuclear Innovation North America. Winn has led the development for the STP 3 and 4 project and has been involved in the formation of this new company.
STP 3 and 4 is a 2,700 megawatt nuclear project being developed on a 50-50 basis by CPS Energy and NRG at the site of the existing South Texas Project in Matagorda County, Texas.
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