SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. nuclear power industry is planning to build new reactors to produce cleaner electricity and reduce dependence on more expensive natural gas, raising questions about the safety of new plants. U.S. President George W. Bush has urged development of atomic power for more energy security, and big electric utilities like Duke Energy Corp. (DUK.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Southern Co. (SO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and Progress Energy (PGN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have announced preliminary plans to develop reactors in Virginia, the Carolinas and elsewhere.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nuclear watchdog, aims to ensure that new reactors will not possess design flaws that must be corrected after they go into service, David Lochbaum, director of nuclear safety at UCS, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group, anticipates utilities will build 12 to 15 new nuclear plants by 2015 to join the current 103 power reactors. A new 1,000-megawatt reactor may cost from $1.5 billion to $3 billion. One megawatt provides power for about 800 homes.
The last nuclear plant built in the United States was Ameren's (AEE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Callaway station in Missouri, which was licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1973 and began operations in 1984, according to the NEI.
The Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 heightened safety fears and effectively halted new reactor construction in the U.S.
RADIATION EXPOSURE
Lochbaum of UCS questions whether ventilation systems at new plants built adjacent to existing reactors could protect control room operators from a radiation leak in an accident.
"New reactors are designed to be safer than existing plants but when you build next to a reactor there is a potential for a bigger radioactive cloud. You have to build a stronger ventilation system," Lochbaum said.
Radiation exposure could sideline plant operators and harm control room equipment. "You can't put the plant on autopilot," he said.
Six new reactor designs have been developed by three companies -- Westinghouse Electric Co., owned by British Nuclear Fuels Plc; General Electric Co. (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research); and Areva Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of French state-owned Areva (CEPFi.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).
Cooling water systems for the new reactors, security to repel attacks, earthquake safety standards, and more nuclear waste to dispose of are other issues that need to be examined but none is a "show stopper at this point," Lochbaum said. "The details need to be worked out."
Adrian Heymer, senior director of new plant deployment at NEI, said the current fleet of reactors "is operating safely and NRC oversight will continue. There should not be large new requirements but regulators will expect the new designs to be safer than existing designs."
They will include more advanced systems to cool a reactor in the event of a breakdown and more high-technology control rooms where operators can run and monitor plant operations from computer terminals instead of relying on physical switches and manual inspections, Heymer said.
New designs also may lengthen the schedules to refuel reactors to once every 36 months from the current industry standard of 18 to 24 months, producing more revenues for utility operators.
Where to store highly radioactive waste fuel rods and where to find qualified workers also must be answered, Heymer said.
Opposition to the federal Yucca Mountain underground waste dump in Nevada could delay storing waste there until 2020, and a shortage of skilled nuclear plant craft workers like pipe fitters, welders and quality control specialists could worsen.
"We are concerned. Half of the plant work force is retiring in the next 10 years," he said.
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