UPDATE:GE Hitachi:To Resubmit Reactor Design To UK By June 2011

29th Jun 2010 17:45

(Adds quotes and details.) By Selina Williams Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.S.-Japanese joint venture GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy expects to resubmit its nuclear-reactor design into the U.K. regulatory process by June 2011, after it completes the process in the U.S., the company's senior vice president for nuclear plant projects said Tuesday. The design is expected to clear the U.K. regulatory process within two years, Danny Roderick told Dow Jones Newswires. The company withdrew its Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor design from the U.K. regulatory process in September 2008 to concentrate on getting its design licensed in the U.S.--a move Roderick said would speed up the certification process in the U.K. "We will provide them [the U.K. nuclear safety regulator] with a completed product no later than June next year--it fits the timeline we have from our customers," Roderick said in an interview, declining to name the customers. He added that GE Hitachi's customers in the U.K. were looking to have two of the company's 1,550- to 1,600-megawatt ESBWRs in operation between 2022 to 2025. Nuclear power is in the midst of a big revival in the U.K., where companies have set out plants to build 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity over the next 15 years. The government wants to replace its fleet of aging reactors to shore up energy security and reduce carbon emissions from power generation. Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR), using Areva SA (CEI.FR) technology, is leading the expansion and plans to have the first of four new nuclear power plants in the U.K. operations in 2017. German utilities E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) and RWE AG (RWE.XE) have teamed up to build 6 GW by 2025 and a consortium comprising Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), GDF Suez (GSZ.FR) and Scottish and Southern Energy PLC (SSE.LN) plans up to 3.6 GW. The U.K. nuclear safety regulator--the Health and Safety Executive--is assessing Areva's EPR reactor design and Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) unit Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000 for license for use in the U.K. That process is due to finish June 2011. -By Selina Williams, Dow Jones Newswires +44 207 842 9262; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 29, 2010 12:45 ET (16:45 GMT)