POWER November 2010 - 39

PLANT DESIGN
erenced thereafter in an application for a
combined license (COL) to build and operate
a new nuclear power plant. The ABWR
is a GE Nuclear Energy (GE)-designed,
single-cycle, forced-circulation BWR with
a rated power of 3,926 MWt.
The design incorporates features of earlier
BWR designs used in Europe, Japan,
and the U.S. but adds improved digital
electronics and computers, steam turbine,
and fuel technology. A few of the many
reactor-specific improvements include the
Table 2. U.S. companies considering either the ABWR or ESBWR. Source:
GE Hitachi and NRC
Plant
Fermi, Unit 3
Grand Gulf, Unit 3
River Bend Station, Unit 3
ESBWR
ESBWR or ABWR
ESBWR or ABWR
South Texas Project, Units 3 and 4 ABWR
Victoria County Station, Units 1 and 2 ESBWR or ABWR
Hope Creek, Unit 2
ABWR
Design
Company
Detroit Edison Co.
Entergy Operations Inc.
Entergy Operations Inc.
South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co.
Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings LLC
Public Service Electric and Gas Co.
General Electric's Nuclear History
General Electric (GE) entered the commercial
nuclear industry in 1955 with the
formation of its Atomic Power Equipment
Department. This new business developed
and patented a reactor design known as
the boiling water reactor (BWR), and in
1957 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
granted GE a license to operate the developmental
Vallecitos BWR at its Vallecitos
Nuclear Center near Pleasanton, Calif. GE
subsequently designed and supplied the
Dresden Nuclear Power Station for Commonwealth
Edison Co., which went into
operation near Chicago in 1960. Over
the ensuing 50 years, the company designed
and supplied nine generations of
BWR technology for customers worldwide.
Today, the majority of BWRs around the
world are based on GE's designs.
In 2000, GE and its technology licensees,
Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp., combined
their nuclear fuel businesses into a joint
venture called Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF).
GNF's primary business involves designing
and fabricating nuclear fuel assemblies and
providing related services for BWR nuclear
power plants. GNF has manufacturing facilities
in Wilmington, N.C., and Kurihama,
Japan. GE holds the majority ownership interest
in, and has effective control of, GNF.
Also, GNF has majority ownership interest in
a joint venture with Enusa Industrias Avanzadas,
S.A. to market and supply fuel to
BWR nuclear power plants in Europe.
In 2007, GE and Hitachi Ltd. formed
a global alliance combining elements of
38
their nuclear power businesses (excluding
the previously formed GNF joint venture).
Outside Japan, the alliance is known as
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and is
based in Wilmington, N.C. GEH's primary
business is designing and supplying
BWRs and servicing both boiling water
and pressurized water reactors. There is
also a Canadian legal entity, GE Hitachi
Nuclear Energy Canada Inc., that supplies
fuel to and services nuclear power plants
that use the pressurized heavy water reactors
designed by Atomic Energy Canada
Ltd. (For more information on the CANDU
nuclear plant designs, see " Bruce A
Proves There Are Second Acts in Nuclear
Power, " August 2010). Whereas GE has
the majority ownership interest in, and
effective control of, the legal entities
constituting the alliance outside Japan,
Hitachi has majority ownership and effective
control in Japan.
Also in 2007, GE and Hitachi Ltd. formed
GE Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment (GLE)
to develop and deploy laser technology to
enrich uranium for use in nuclear power
plants. In 2008, Cameco Corp. acquired
an interest in GLE. GE has the majority
ownership interest in, and effective control
of, GLE.
In addition to these companies, a
number of GE's other businesses supply
products and services to its nuclear power
business, including steam turbines, sensors,
water treatment services, and other
electrical equipment.
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use of internal recirculation pumps, fine
motion control rod drives that can be controlled
by an electric motor-driven screw
mechanism (rather than a hydraulic-driven
step process), microprocessor-based digital
control and logic systems, and digital safety
systems. The design also includes safety
enhancements, such as protection against
overpressurizing the containment vessel,
passive core debris flooding capability, an
independent water makeup system, three
emergency diesel generators, and a combustion
turbine as an alternative backup
power source.
Thirty-five of the 104 operating reactors
in the U.S. are BWRs; 14 BWR plants have
a single reactor, nine have two reactors,
and one plant has three reactors. The World
Nuclear Association database lists 50 GE
BWRs in operation worldwide. GE lists 66
BWR units of all sizes that have been constructed
(for example, Humboldt Bay Nuclear
Power Plant was a 63-MW plant that
was permanently shut down in 1976). The
difference appears to be those reactors that
have been removed from active service.
ABWR Builds on BWR Success
The ABWR is the foundation of GEH's nuclear
reactor portfolio and reflects 50 years
of continued evolution, from GE's initial
BWR/1 concept in 1955, to designs combining
the best features from its worldwide
BWR fleet, to its latest builds in Japan.
(The last BWRs constructed in the U.S.
were Generation II BWR/6 models.) Table
2 lists those U.S. companies that have announced
plans to use the ABWR or the ESBWR
in their future nuclear plant builds.
This Generation III design is licensed in
Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. and is capable
of supplying power ranging from 1,350 to
1,470 MWe gross. In Japan, a very short construction
time of approximately 39 months
from first structural concrete pour to first
fuel load validates GEH's claims that the
design reduces construction cost and time.
(For more information on reducing the time
to construct new nuclear plants, see " Modularizing
Containment Vessels in New Nuclear
Power Plants, " November 2009 and " Transfer
ABWR Construction Techniques to U.S.
Shores, " May 2007 in our online archives at
www.powermag.com.)
The best examples of the success of the
ABWR design are the two units at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
(Units 6 and 7) in Japan.
These two units, built in 1996 and 1997,
were the first ABWRs and the first Generation
III reactors to begin commercial operation
in the world (Figure 2). Since then,
two additional plants (Hamaoka Unit 5 and
Shika 2) have entered commercial service
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POWER November 2010

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