Regulators OK Fermi 3, but DTE has no plans to build it

Federal regulators have approved construction of the Fermi 3 nuclear reactor near Monroe, although it may not ever get built.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Thursday afternoon that after a 6 1/2-year review, it will soon issue a combined license to build and operate the proposed 1,560-megawatt nuclear reactor on Lake Erie. It would go next to Fermi 2, the nuclear plant operating about 30 miles south of Detroit.

There are currently four commercial nuclear reactors in Michigan that generated 28% of the state's electricity in 2013. Fermi 2 is the newest plant, opened in 1988.

DTE Energy operates Fermi 2 and applied for the Fermi 3 license in September 2008. The utility says it has no immediate plans to build Fermi 3, and sought the approval as a long-term planning option.

"With this license, DTE Energy now possesses the most diverse, comprehensive slate of options to plan for Michigan's energy future," said Steven Kurmas, DTE Energy's president and chief operating officer. "The potential of additional nuclear energy gives us the option of reliable, base-load, generation that does not emit greenhouse gases."

The construction license would not expire, so long as no major changes are made to the plans.

Recent developments in the energy market, particularly the slumping price of natural gas, have made nuclear power less economically appealing. The last U.S. nuclear plant opened in 1996.

Fermi 3 would be an Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor built by GE-Hitachi. Its design is considered a third-generation reactor with passive safety features that enable it to cool itself for a week in cases of complete power loss, such as occurred in the 2011 Fukushima facility in Japan.

The regulatory commission placed several conditions on Fermi 3's license to reflect new safety requirements following the Fukushima meltdowns.

Fermi 2 is a boiling-water Mark 1 reactor that is a newer vintage of the type of reactors involved in the Fukushima disaster with better safety features. It employs about 800 people.