New York’s next nuclear plant is likely to be a four unit BWRX-300 installation

On June 23, New York’s Governor Hochul announced that she had directed the New York Power Authority to build a new nuclear energy facility with at least 1 GWe of capacity. During the announcement speech, she provided several bits of information leading to an informed prediction that the facility will initially include 4 BWRX-300’s on a site close to Lake Ontario.

The hints leading to the conclusion include:

• New York operates three existing nuclear plants (one is a two unit facility). All of them are on the shore of Lake Ontario.
• “Candidate locations will be assessed for suitability based on public safety, strength of community support, compatibility with existing infrastructure, as well as skilled labor and land availability. (Existing plant sites or those close to existing plants score well on all listed attributes.)
• “…initiative also builds on the State’s ongoing financial support to Constellation to pursue an early site permitting process for a new project at its Nine Mile Point Clean Energy Center” (New York is already investing in a site evaluation process at an existing nuclear facility. The value of that investment decreases with increasing distance from the evaluated site.)
• “…will allow for future collaboration with other states and Ontario, building on regional momentum to strengthen nuclear supply chains, share best practices, and support the responsible deployment of advanced nuclear technologies (Ontario started construction on a four-unit BWRX-300 project at the Darlington Nuclear Power Plant which is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The Tennessee Valley Authority is well on its way to a final investment decision for a similar project at the Clinch River, TN site. “Best practices”, “responsible deployment” and “strengthening supply chains” all point to the selection of the same design.
• Large scale transportation capabilities across Lake Ontario would facilitate strong project management cooperation between the New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation. They could develop schedules that enable workforce coordination for maximum benefits, share specialized equipment including cranes and automated welding devices, arrange for larger bulk deliveries of specialized steel and concrete and increase order quantities for specialized components.
• GE Vernova has an historically strong manufacturing base in Upstate New York. That base shrank dramatically during the past several decades as GE deemphasized manufacturing and moved remaining production to other locations, but the current on-shoring trend could move it in the opposite direction.
• Three of the four operating nuclear units in New York are GE boiling water reactors (BWR).

Those factors do not make the prediction a 100% slam dunk, but they add up to a strong case.

Choosing GEV-H BWRX-300 units for the specific project that Gov. Hochul announced on June 23 will not preclude the selection of different designs that might be more suitable in different locations or for different applications.