The Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

, which would have been built on the Bell Bend of the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...

adjacent to the

Susquehanna Steam Electric Station The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power station, is on the Susquehanna River in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Operations PPL operated the plant until June 2015 when Talen Energy was formed from PPL's competitive ...

. On October 10, 2008, PPL Bell Bend, LLC, a subsidiary of PPL submitted a

Combined Construction and Operating License The Combined Construction and Operating License (Regulatory Guide 1.206, COL) replaced the previous Draft Regulatory Guide 1145 as the licensing process for new nuclear power plants in the United States. It is a part of a newer "streamlined" proce ...

application (COL) for the plant with the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operat ...

(NRC) — in time for the potential plant to qualify for production tax credits under the U.S.

Energy Policy Act of 2005 The Energy Policy Act of 2005 () is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems ...

. The proposed nuclear power plant consisted of one

European Pressurized Reactor The EPR is a Generation III reactor, third generation pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome (part of Areva between 2001 and 2017) and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germ ...

(EPR) steam electric system designed by the French company

AREVA Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...

. The rated core thermal power would be 4,590 MWt. The rated and design net electrical output was approximately 1,600

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

. A total of four plants using this technology were under construction in 2008 in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The two units at

Taishan nuclear power plant The Taishan Nuclear Power Plant () is a nuclear power plant in Taishan, Guangdong province, China. The plant features two operational EPR reactors. The first unit, Taishan 1, entered commercial service in December 2018, but was shut down from J ...

have since entered commercial operations while

Olkiluoto 3 The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant ( fi, Olkiluodon ydinvoimalaitos, sv, Olkiluoto kärnkraftverk) is one of Finland's two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unit VVER Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is owned and operated by ...

(the first EPR to start construction) reached first criticality in late 2021 whereas

Flamanville 3 The Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant is located at Flamanville, Manche, France on the Cotentin Peninsula. The power plant houses two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that produce 1.3 GWe each and came into service in 1986 and 1987, respectivel ...

is still not finished as of 2022. The plant would have been built by PPL and UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint enterprise of

Constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

and French energy giant

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

. PPL spokesman Dan McCarthy said in 2008 that the plant would cost about $10 billion to develop, and seven to eight years to construct — beginning operation in 2016 or 2017. A 2011 estimate gave costs as $13–15 billion and an operational starting date of 2018-20. PPL filed an initial application for federal loan guarantees by the September 29, 2008 deadline. PPL intended to submit the second part of the application by the December 19 deadline. PPL Chief Operating Officer William Spence said, "Without federal loan guarantees, companies like PPL will not be able to secure financing for the substantial cost of building new, advanced-design nuclear energy plants that will help this country achieve challenging limits on

carbon dioxide emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

, as well as

energy independence Energy independence is independence or autarky regarding energy resources, energy supply and/or energy generation by the energy industry. Energy dependence, in general, refers to mankind's general dependence on either primary or secondary energ ...

". The license application was withdrawn on August 31, 2016.

Notes

External links

{{Authority control Proposed nuclear power stations in the United States Buildings and structures in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania Cancelled nuclear power stations in the United States