Entergy: Grand Gulf output hike best option
Earlier this month, company officials said a separate effort to license a second reactor at the site remains a possibility — though diminished in light of market conditions and the cost of design plans for the core of the proposed reactor. Estimates to build it from contract designer GE-Hitachi reportedly had tripled by late 2008, causing the utility to suspend its efforts to build and license the second reactor.
Federal approval on the upgrade is also needed, specifically from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must OK an increase in thermal operating limits which will increase the steam flow needed to produce the extra wattage in the generator. Total cost of the upgrade has varied. Further construction cost analysis since May has pushed the projection to $510 million, Richardson said.
Of that, about $152 million, or 30 percent, will come from Entergy’s ratepayers and 10 percent from customers of South Mississippi EPA, Richardson confirmed to the commission. Nathan Brown, chief operating officer for SMEPA, said no cost analysis was done to determine how much per kilowatt hour it would cost its ratepayers, but the upgrade was likely to benefit customers in the long run because of the utility’s aging coal-fired facilities.
GE-Hitachi was chosen for the design study and to develop the license amendment, according to petition documents, and Siemens Power Corp. was selected for a new high-pressure turbine motor, both because of each company’s expertise and having supplied components to the existing plant. Baton Rouge-based The Shaw Group was chosen prime contractor and labor supplier for the major modifications after competitively bidding on the job, Richardson said.
“I implore you,” Commissioner Brandon Presley said. “With Mississippi (customers) paying that type of money, Mississippi contractors need to do the work.”
The planned “extended power uprate” at Grand Gulf would be the second since 2002, when power was upped about 2 percent. It would surpass generating capacity at Arizona’s Palo Verde power plant by about 9 percent.
Vicksburg Post
10/30/9
Magnolia Tribune
