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Public Citizen | Victoria County, Texas - Victoria County, Texas

Victoria County, Texas

In December 2007, Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings, LLC (Exelon) announced it had chosen Victoria County, TX as the site at which it wanted to build two nuclear reactors, at a location 20 miles south of the city of Victoria.

Exelon Nuclear, headquartered in Warrenville, IL, is a business unit of the Exelon Corporation, which has an existing fleet of 17 nuclear plants. In March 2007, Exelon became the first company to receive an Early Site Permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build at the Clinton Power Station in Illinois. Among the reactors Exelon already operates is a unit at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Exelon submitted an application on September 4, 2008 seeking approval from the NRC to obtain a construction and operating license (COL) to build two Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactors (ESBWR), and will be called Victoria County Station Units 1 and 2. The ESBWR, which would produce about 1,500-megawatts, was designed by General Electric-Hitachi Nuclear Energy and is awaiting certification by the NRC. The application process by Exelon alone for such a reactor is estimated to cost $23 million, and it has yet to be approved.

In December 2008, Exelon announced that it would not use the ESBWR design. In July 2009, the company announced that it would no longer pursue a reactor license, instead it will consider seeking an Early Site Permit for the site.

The project, which includes a man-made, freshwater lake for cooling, would cover a total of 11,500 acres of green land in Victoria. To view Exelon’s application, click here.

If you would like to get involved in stopping the construction of new nuclear plants in Texas, please email us and let us know how you’d like to help. We can provide you with information and strategic advice.

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