Advocates laud safety of new nuclear reactors

updated 12:08 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2006

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Jose Reyes' research lab looks like a three-story tangle of pipes and instruments. But to nuclear engineers like him, it's evidence that generating electricity by splitting atoms can cost less and be done more safely than in the past.

Reyes heads an Oregon State University team that's built a quarter-scale model of the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear plant — which the company hopes will lead an atomic-energy renaissance in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Even though the lab looks complicated, the model is far simpler than the plants built in the 20th century. Without using radioactive material, it tests the AP1000's "passive-safety" system, which relies on gravity rather than a battery of mechanical pumps to carry water to a reactor in an emergency.

"I think Oregon State was working much like the consumer products testing lab for nuclear power plants," Reyes said.

The tests, conducted under contract with Westinghouse and the U.S. Department of Energy, were critical in the reactor receiving Nuclear Regulatory Commission certification last December. The lab can test other reactor models as well.

The safety system, Reyes said, would make nuclear leaks far less likely, and virtually eliminate the threat of a meltdown of the nuclear core. The simpler, modular design will help bring down the cost of construction and make overruns less likely.

The 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania contributed to a virtual halt in new plant construction — along with high costs and energy-demand forecasts that turned out to be wrong. There are currently 103 U.S. nuclear plants, producing about 20 percent of the nation's electricity.

But fears of global warming and the rising cost of natural gas and coal may finally change the image of nuclear power as the industry markets a new generation of reactors, such as the AP1000 and General Electric Co.'s ESBWR, or Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor.

Interest in new plants has increased sharply since August 2005, when President Bush signed an energy bill that streamlines applications and offers loan incentives, tax credits and federal insurance for new plants. Licensing could be approved within a few years, depending on when applications are filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

But there are plenty of skeptics. They point out that, because the AP1000 and ESBRW have not yet been built, it's still uncertain how much they will cost or how safe they will actually be.

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