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The U.S. utility industry has announced plans to prepare license applications to build a new generation of nuclear reactors at three sites in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, with two projects featuring GE Energy's advanced reactor design, the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR).

On September 22, U.S. utility consortium NuStart Energy Development, LLC, announced it would develop a federal construction and operating license (COL) application at a site adjacent to member utility Entergy's Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Port Gibson, Miss. GE's reactor is NuStart's preferred reactor technology for this project.

Separate from its NuStart project, New Orleans-based Entergy said it also will simultaneously develop a license application to potentially build and operate a second reactor, this one adjacent to the utility's River Bend nuclear power plant near St. Francisville, Louisiana.

The license applications could be among the first such license requests in three decades. Utilities must obtain a federal construction and operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have the option of building a new reactor.

"We look forward to working closely with NuStart and Entergy to begin more detailed, site-specific engineering work required to complete the construction and operating license applications for these projects," said Andy White, president and chief executive officer of GE Energy's nuclear business.

The ESBWR is a new reactor design of the Generation III+ class, designed to be safer and more cost-effective to operate due to passive safety systems, simplified design and a smaller footprint, thus reducing its construction schedule and costs.

"This announcement means we will be taking the necessary steps to have the option to build new nuclear capacity—especially if nuclear energy continues to be the lowest cost, best option for its power customers in the future," said Dan Keuter, Entergy's vice president of nuclear business development. "Our customers want a stable, low-cost electricity source that also does not contribute to climate change. Advanced reactors like the ESBWR can provide both."