GE Hitachi Gets Advantage from Recession

The recession may prove to be a blessing for GE Hitachi’s most advanced reactor design, providing more time for the technology to be approved by regulators.Now making its way through the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) design certification process, the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) is described by GE Hitachi as technology that offers a simplified reactor design and even higher safety margins than the already deployed U.S. fleet of 104 operating reactors, including two reactors at Progress Energy’s Brunswick Nuclear Plant in Southport.ESBWR was considered by Exelon, then set aside in 2008 as not ready for construction at the utility holding company’s Victoria, Texas, plant site. But ESBWR may get another look...
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