Progress asks feds to approve new nukes

This morning, Progress Energy Carolinas asked federal regulators to approve its plans to build two new nuclear reactors in North Carolina. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said that the licensing application will likely take more than three years to win approval.

The Carolinas utility picked the Westinghouse AP1000, the same technology on the drawing board for its sister utility, Progress Energy Florida. The St. Petersburg-based utility plans to build a pair of reactors in Levy County. Both utilities have carefully avoided voicing any commitment to build, saying only that its trying to preserve the option.

The utilities remain conspicuously silent on one crucial piece of information: cost.

When Progress Energy announced its plans more than a year ago, it offered a single-reactor estimate of $2-billion to $3-billion. In recent months, the utility -- along with others in the industry -- has backed away from that early estimate, saying it wasn't an all-inclusive estimate. But it has not given a new figure.

The industry has proffered a range of new guesses that double and even triple that early estimate. Perhaps the best guess comes from Florida Power & Light. Unlike its industry brethren, the Juno Beach utility has been unusually candid on the subject of cost. It has offered a two-reactor estimate on the Westinghouse AP1000 that ranges from $12-billion to $18-billion.

Progress Energy Florida plans to file its case for new nuclear with the Florida Public Service Commission some time in March. That utility has said it won't offer new estimates until then. It has estimated the cost of its 10-county, 200-mile transmission project to support the new plant at about $2-billion.

Read more about Progress Energy's new nuclear plans here:

Nuclear Power Costs Surge in Rush to Build --  Dec. 12, 2007

Nature Coast to Nuclear Coast -- Dec. 9, 2007

Utilities Press Land Access Law -- Feb. 7, 2007

Power Line Idea Takes Big Bite from Preserve -- Feb. 16, 2008

- Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer