Regulators approve new nuclear reactors near Houston

NRG Energy and its partners can build two new nuclear reactors near Houston if they want, but they so far have no plans to do so.

Despite approval of two licenses Tuesday from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the South Texas Project nuclear plant southwest of Houston will stay as it is indefinitely.

The massive cost of the project coupled with cheap Texas power prices mean NRG Energy and its partners won't build the new nuclear reactors anytime soon, if at all.

The partnership continues to look for new U.S. investors to eventually move the project forward, NRG spokesman David Knox said.

NRG said five years ago it wouldn't invest any more money in the expansion. Around then, NRG projected the expansion to cost about $14 billion.

"Market conditions, currently dominated by low natural gas prices, make the economics of new merchant nuclear challenging," Knox said.

"However, we continue to believe that new nuclear power is important for Texas and a carbon-constrained world, and having this license will enable (the partners) to move quickly when market conditions support a construction decision."

The existing South Texas Project is owned by NRG, Austin Energy and San Antonio's CPS Energy. The expansion, if it were to be built, would be led by a company called Nuclear Innovation North America, or NINA, which is 90 percent owned by NRG and 10 percent by Toshiba.

In turn, NINA owns 92.4 percent of the expansion. NRG has sought additional partners in the expansion project since CPS Energy, once a 50 percent partner, reduced its stake to 7.6 percent.

The plant in Matagorda County already has two reactors. The South Texas Project, one of two nuclear power plants in Texas, opened in 1988, but is still one of the nation's newer nuclear plants.

The project previously faced delays in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

The NRC said the new licenses would include the agency's upgraded post-Fukushima safety requirements.