Smoother path to cleaner energy

In a nation that's craving cheaper alternative energy that doesn't belch out ozone-depleting pollution, the proposed addition of two nuclear reactors at Burke County's Plant Vogtle clearly is good news.

Now there is this added bit of good news: Vogtle has been groomed to become a "reference site" for other proposed nuclear power plants.

Licensing nuclear power facilities requires reams of documentation, much of it identical among plants using the same equipment -- in this case, Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor, which is what is slated to be built at Vogtle and five other nuclear sites in the Southeast.

To streamline the license application process, information relating to generic training and operational procedures -- information already approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- can be duplicated by similar sites.

"Then there would be all the site-specific things, like seismology and hydrology and a lot of other issues that are specific to a particular site," explained Southern Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Thomas. "Those would have to be done at each site."

Simplifying the application process steps up the timetables to bring new nuclear plants online to address America's energy needs. Alternative sources such as wind and solar power certainly should be pursued, but they are still years from being commercially viable. Until more sources can be realistically tapped, we must opt for more reachable and logical alternatives -- and that definitely includes nuclear power.

Streamlining in this case shouldn't be confused with administrative skimping. Particularly in terms of safety, nuclear power is regulated rigorously and successfully. As Andrew C. Kadak, a nuclear science professor at MIT, wrote last June in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "The NRC's focus on a risk-informed, performance-based regulatory system has allowed the industry to strike that needed balance between safety and economic performance."

The choice of Vogtle as a reference site is important and telling. It speaks to the plant's progress in moving to the front of the pack among nuclear sites awaiting regulatory approval. If Vogtle continues apace, it could have its early site permit approved later this year, and its new reactors could come online as early as 2016.

That's not a moment too soon. It would be difficult to move forward in the 21st century if we don't pursue and implement cleaner energy production.