Project Overview
Proposed Lee Nuclear Station Artist Rendering -- Cherokee County, S.C.
Duke Energy prepared a combined construction and operating license (COL) application for a potential new nuclear station at a site in Cherokee County, S.C. The proposed station will be named the William States Lee III Nuclear Station (Lee Nuclear Station). The COL is for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, and the application was submitted to the NRC in December 2007.
The Cherokee County site was selected following a comprehensive siting study to identify possible plant locations across the Carolinas service area. The study identified multiple potential sites in North Carolina and South Carolina suitable for a new nuclear station.
While a decision to build a new nuclear station is a number of years away, work must be ongoing now to ensure the new nuclear option is available in the future to meet growing customers’ needs.
In addition to its own work on new nuclear generation, Duke Energy is actively involved in the NuStart Energy consortium and fully supports NuStart’s work, which is important to the nuclear industry in demonstrating the COL process, as well as completing first-of-a-kind engineering for new nuclear reactor technology.
Duke Energy prides itself on serving both its customers and the communities in which it operates. The company has proactive community outreach programs around all its generating stations. Employees serve the communities through ongoing volunteer initiatives. Duke Energy employees plan to continue serving existing plant communities, while actively supporting potential new plant communities, to ensure neighbors have information on plant operations, projects and other activities. Public support of nuclear energy is vitally important now and in the future. Duke Energy’s history of safe and reliable operations is a history the company and its employees are extremely proud of, and will continue to focus on for years to come.
