"Groups Seek Delay In Westinghouse Reactor Approval"

"Environmental groups, on Thursday, again asked the U.S. nuclear regulator to delay approval of Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 reactor design.

They claim, among other things, the company continues to change the design during the certification process.

Any delay in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of the design could hold up construction of the first new reactors to be built in the United States since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Two energy companies in the Southeast have already started preliminary construction work on new, multi-billion dollar reactors based on the AP1000 design--Southern Co's Vogtle nuclear stations in Georgia and Scana Corp's Summer plants in South Carolina.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission had planned to approve the AP1000 design as early as this summer and to issue construction and operating licenses to Southern and Scana to build two 1,100-megawatt reactors each this year."

Scott DiSavino and Eileen O'Grady report for Reuters June 17, 2011.