By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Southern Co passed the environmental review for the two nuclear reactors it wants to build at its Vogtle nuclear station in Georgia. the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Friday, suggesting Japan's crisis is not slowing the U.S. nuclear industry.
The NRC must still vote on issuing the license.
The agency's final environmental impact statement on Southern's reactors comes as some lawmakers call for a delay in approving new U.S. nuclear power plants in response to the crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station.
NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko recently told Congress there were no plans to change the agency's schedule because of the problems in Japan.
Jaczko has said the five members of the commission would likely vote during the fourth quarter of this year on Southern's license to build the two reactors.
Southern said it expects final NRC approval of the project later this year.
"We don't anticipate any events in Japan to impact the construction schedule or the company's ability to stay on budget for the new units," said Southern spokeswoman Beth Thomas.
If the operating licenses are approved by the NRC, the two new reactors would come online in 2016 and 2017.
The NRC said its licensing decision will be based on the final environmental impact statement issued today and the final safety evaluation report that is still being compiled by agency staff.
The Energy Department has conditionally awarded an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to Southern to help finance two reactors, which would be built next to two existing reactors at the company's Vogtle nuclear power station located 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Georgia.
Under the program, the federal government would step in and repay up to 80 percent of the loan if Southern defaulted on the construction financing.
Each of the reactors would have a generating capacity of 1,100 megawatts, enough for each to provide electricity to about 275,000 homes in Georgia, according to Southern.
The company plans to use Westinghouse's AP1000 reactors, which the NRC is expected to approve modifications to by late summer or early autumn. Westinghouse is a unit of Toshiba Corp
The AP1000 design is seen as safer than the reactors at the Fukushima plant in Japan, because water to cool the core in the AP1000 comes for above the reactor and flows down.
The Japanese reactors pipe water in from below and pump it up to cool the core. In the event a coolant pipe breaks, the AP1000 is designed to shut down safely without relying on electricity, diesel generators or pumps.
Instead, the reactor relies on gravity to circulate water and compressed gas to keep the core from overheating.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Alden Bentley)