(March 14, 2007)--Texas power company TXU Corporation has picked a Japanese company's design for up to three nuclear reactors, two of which could be built at TXU’s Comanche Peak plant in Central Texas.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited announced the nonbinding deal Wednesday.

It represents an understanding between the two companies that Dallas-based TXU will use Mitsubishi technology in any future nuclear power plants.

TXU spokesman Tom Kleckner says the deal stops short of a multi-billion-dollar commitment to order any reactors.

Mitsubishi's pressurized water reactor design would send about 1,600 megawatts of electricity to the Texas power grid.

But US regulators haven’t yet approved the design.

That process could take three-and-a-half to five years.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects Mitsubishi to apply for certification of the reactor design by early next year.

TXU also would need to complete the estimated three-and-a-half-year process of obtaining a federal license to build and operate the reactors.

TXU plans to build two new reactors at its existing Comanche Peak twin-reactor plant about 80 miles southwest of Dallas.

The company also is considering two or three more reactors at an undisclosed site in Texas.

TXU plans to open its new reactors between 2015 and 2020.

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