NRG picks Toshiba for South Texas reactor project

LOS ANGELES Aug 10 (Reuters) - NRG Energy (NRG.N) has signed Toshiba Corp. (6502.T) to head a $6 billion to $7 billion project to install two reactors in Texas to open by 2015 at what it says will be the largest U.S. nuclear power plant, NRG said on Friday.

The two 1,350-megawatt General Electric (GE.N) advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR) would join two existing reactors at the South Texas nuclear power plant in Bay City, Texas, about 40 miles south of Houston.

If approved for construction by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), one of the reactors is to come on line by 2014 and another by 2015, NRG said.

They would lift the production capacity of the South Texas plant to 5,260 megawatts, which is about 1,400 more megawatts than the current largest U.S. nuclear power station located in Arizona.

The application NRG expects to file this fall represents two of 28 reactor units which the NRC expects to receive applications for in the next two years.

No full application for a new nuclear unit has been received by the NRC in three decades.

"We want to be and expect to be the first to complete a full application with the NRC" to build a new nuclear power reactor in the United States, said NRG spokesman Dave Knox.

Knox said that NRG expects to have its full application with the NRC by this fall.

The first partial application -- the environmental but not the safety portion -- was filed July 13 for an expansion of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Lusby, Maryland. The new part of the Maryland plant is to be co-owned by Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG.N) and French-owned Areva CEPFi.PA.

If all of the new reactors that the NRC has been told are likely to be applied for in the next two years come online near proposed schedules, about 32,000 to 33,000 megawatts of power production will be added.

The U.S. has 104 active nuclear reactors that can produce just over 100,000 megawatts of power, which is about 20 percent of total generation capacity in the United States.

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

Construction of Unit 3 at South Texas is expected to begin by the end of 2010. That unit is to come on line by 2014 and Unit 4 by 2015, NRG said.

Building the two units is expected to employ 4,000 to 6,000 workers at its peak.

The South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. (STP) runs the South Texas plant and power production is split in ratios reflecting the ownership of Unit 1 and Unit 2 -- NRG at 44 percent, San Antonio's municipal utility CPS Energy at 40 percent and municipal utility Austin Energy at 16 percent.

Unit 1 began operation in 1988 and Unit 2 in 1989.

Ownership splits for Units 3 and 4 have not yet been decided. Spokesman Dave Knox of NRG Energy said the company is talking to "many potential partners," including CPS and Austin Energy.

NRG said infrastructure is largely in place for the proposed reactors.

A lake of between 6,000 and 7,000 acres was built to serve four reactors, Knox said. Transmission and other infrastructure is in place, he added.