Sep. 12--RAINSVILLE, Ala. -- On the site of Alabama's biggest unfinished construction site, the Tennessee Valley Authority is developing plans for a new type of nuclear reactor it hopes will be cheaper and safer than those built in the 1970s.

A consortium of utilities and engineering firms, which includes TVA, plans to submit an application in October to build two reactors on the Bellefonte nuclear plant site adjacent to where TVA abandoned two earlier-generation nuclear units. The plant, which must still be approved by regulators and TVA directors, would use a simpler, modular-built design developed by Westinghouse Electric Co. "With a standard, more modern design that is approved before construction begins, we can avoid a lot of the problems we had in the past," said Jack Bailey, vice president of new nuclear generation for TVA.

Representatives from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tuesday night outlined how regulators will review a new reactor design that could make its debut at the Bellefonte site in Hollywood, Ala., within the next decade. The plant would be among the first to use the streamlined licensing process that combines the formerly separate construction permit and operating license into a single license. A nuclear consortium known as NuStart Energy LLC is planning to submit an application to the NRC by Oct. 31 for a combined operating license to build and operate two Advanced Passive 1000 Westinghouse reactors at Bellefonte, officials said.

Each of the nits would be capable of generating about 1,100 megawatts, or enough power for 650,000 houses. NuStart has split the $30 million expense so far to prepare the Bellefonte license with the U.S. Department of Energy. It expects a similar split for another $20 million in costs likely over the next four years to respond to NRC questions and to modify lant designs and procedures, if needed, according to NuStart President Marilyn Kray, a vice president for Exelon Generating Corp. If a combined operating license is issued by the NRC, Ms. Kray said, the predesigned plant could be built within four years.

The AP1000 is one of two new reactor designs that NuStart is preparing applications to build. At the Grand Gulf Station in Mississippi, NuStart will apply in 2008 for a license for a General Electric Economic Simplified Boiling Water reactor. "We want to have some competition among designs, but we also want to bring more standardization into our industry and these two designs seemed to optimize the balance between innovation and operational competence," Ms. Kray said. "These new designs both help take the next step toward applying more passive, gravity-fed and natural circulation to replace many of the electric-power pumps and valves in today's plants." Although no final cost estimate has been prepared for the AP1000 reactors, Mr.

Bailey said preliminary estimates indicate each of the AP1000 reactors at Bellefonte would cost between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion to build. TVA's strategic plan calls for such units to come on line by 2017 and 2019, although TVA has made no final decision on the Bellefonte units, TVA spokesman John Moulton said. TVA scrapped plans to finish the original Babcock & Wilcox-designed pressurized water reactors at Bellefonte in the late 1990s after investing more than $4 billion in the units. Mr. Bailey said TVA should be able to use the cooling towers, water intake ystem and the electrical switchyard -- worth about $50 million -- for the new reactors.

The original reactors, which TVA began building in the 1970s but quit construction on in 1988, would cost too much to finish and not be as efficient as the new reactors, Mr. Bailey said. The Bellefonte site is one of six where U.S. utilities have announced plans to pursue the AP1000 reactor, but no utility has yet committed to building one of the units, according to Bill Borchardt, director of the NRC's Office of New Reactors. Mr. Borch rdt said his office is preparing to handle up to 29 applications for new nuclear plants in the next decade.