Two-step licensing

Similar to the construction permit under the two-step licensing process (10 CFR 50), the COL authorizes construction of the commercial nuclear power plant. Essenhally, the COL must contain the same information required in an application for an OL issued under 10 CFR 50. It must also specify the inspections, tests, and analyses that the applicant must perform. In addition, the document must specify acceptance criteria that are necessary to provide reasonable assurance that the plant is constructed and will be operated in conformity with all applicable regulatory requirements. If the ESP and design cerhfication are not referenced, then the NRC reviews the technical and environmental information as described for the two-step licensing process (10 CFR 50). Finally, there is also a mandatory hearing for a COL process. 

It was the intention of Congress, in establishing a two step licensing procedure, that an applicant who received a permit to construct a nuclear reactor should have substantial assurance that if the reactor is built in accordance with the conditions of the permit a license to operate will be granted, and therefore the essential finding with respect to seifety should be made at the time the construction permit is issued. This... 

The licensing process consists of two steps construction and operating license that must be completed before fuel loading. Licensing covers radiological safety, environmental protection, and antitru,st considerations. Activities not defined as production or utilization of special nuclear material (SNM), use simple one-step. Materials Licenses, for the possession of radioactive materials. Examples are uranium mills, solution recovery plants, UO fabrication plants, interim spent fuel storage, and isotopic separation plants. 

The estimated PHA production cost for the two-step process is between 2.20 and 4.40/kg (27). The potential of this process has caught the attention of I-PHA BioPolymers, a Hong Kong-based company involved in environmental biotechnology development, which recently licensed the technology from the University of Hawaii. I-PHA BioPolymers plans to develop and build a pilot plant for the production of PHAs and fertilizers (28). 

Secondary reformer exit gas is cooled by generating steam at 100 to 125 bar (4). The shift reaction is carried out in two steps, HTS (5) and LTS (6), and water is separated. Carbon dioxide removal (7) is by licensed processes. Following C02 removal, residual carbon oxides are converted to methane in the methanator (8). Methana-tor effluent is cooled and water is separated (9) before the raw gas is dried (10). 

The main license holders are Engelhard, IFF, UOP etc. and Phillips, which also carries out reverse isomerization in a two-step process, with the second operating around 500°C. 

One-Step Ziegler Process. Gulf Research and Development Corp. developed tile one-step Ziegler process. This process is now owned by Chevron, which has two plants at Cedar Bayou, Texas. Plants based on licensing the technology are operated by Mitsubishi in Japan and at Neratovice in the Czech Republic. Chevron further improved the process around 1990 by reducing paraffin impurities. 

The gas-to-methanol plant employs the ICI Low-pressure Methanol Process, sub-licensed from Davy McKee, and incorporates two methanol trains each capable of producing 2200 tonnes per day. The main steps in the methanol process are desulphurisation of the natural gas feed, steam reforming to... 

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