Port Gibson’s Grand Gulf Nuclear Station was selected today as one of two finalists to move forward to seek final approval for expansion.

The second facility is at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in northeast Alabama, said NuStart Energy Development LLC, a consortium of 11 companies that operate or plan to build new nuclear-power plants.

Also today, Grand Gulf’s operating company announced it planned to file a separate application for a similar license for expansion at its station at St. Francisville, La.

The consortium was formed to share the costs of applying for what would be the first approval from federal regulators in about 30 years for construction and operation of new nuclear-generating capacity.

“Today’s announcement concludes a four-month evaluation process since NuStart announced its six finalist candidate sites last May,” a NuStart statement says. “NuStart was pleasantly surprised by overwhelmingly positive responses from state and local governments to NuStart’s request for information sent in May at the beginning of the evaluation process. Local leaders in all six finalist areas offered significant governmental support to a new plant in their areas.”

A subsidiary of Grand Gulf’s operating company, Jackson-based Entergy Nuclear, applied to the NRC in October 2003 for an optional preliminary permit called an early-site permit. Public hearings have been held in Port Gibson, and a decision is expected in October 2006.

The next and final step is attaining an early-site permit and a construction and operating license. That is part of a new, streamlined regulatory-approval process designed to speed the development of nuclear capacity in the United States.

The applications have been subsidized by the federal government under an initiative designed to get new nuclear plants in operation as soon as possible after 2010.

“Under the federal energy bill passed by Congress this summer, the first few nuclear plants will qualify for several federal incentives such as federal risk insurance against regulatory delays, 80-percent loan guarantees and a production-tax credit for the first eight years of operation,” a statement from Entergy Nuclear said today. “Entergy is attempting on behalf of its power customers to be ready to make a build decision at the soonest possible date.”

Entergy also announced today that it would file on its own an application for a license for construction and operation of a new plant beside its existing River Bend Station near St. Francisville.

“By applying for the construction and operating license at River Bend site at the same time as the Grand Gulf application, Entergy will create greater flexibility in whether to build adjacent to either of its existing nuclear plants, Grand Gulf or River Bend,” said a statement by Entergy Nuclear.

“The license-application work will take 18-24 months. The River Bend COL application could be submitted to the (NRC) in 2007 or 2008. After a two-year review by the NRC, such a license could be approved by the NRC in 2010.

“At that time Entergy could make a build decision in 2010 based on a number of factors, including an assessment of its customers’ need for additional power after 2014, the estimated cost and construction schedule of the advanced nuclear plant, the future cost of power from the plant, interest rates at that time and the projected cost of other fuel choices in 2014 such as natural gas.”

Two of NuStart’s six announced finalist sites, the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant site in southern Maryland and the Nine Mile Point nuclear plant in Oswego, N.Y., were withdrawn from consideration by one of its members, Constellation Energy of Baltimore, Md., NuStart said.

The final two sites were River Bend and the Savannah River Site, a U.S. Department of Energy facility near Aiken, S.C.

The NuStart work itself is being funded under Nuclear 2010, NuStart said.

“The federal government is sharing 50-50 the cost of the detailed engineering with NuStart,” the consortium said.