A Duke Energy spokesperson said the company is confident that possible design flaws with the proposed Lee nuclear stations’s shield building will be corrected.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recently informed shield building maker Westinghouse that it hasn’t demonstrated certain structural components of the revised AP1000 reactor can withstand design basis loads.

The AP1000 shield building would protect the reactor’s primary containment from severe weather as well as provide a radiation barrier during normal operation.

“We’ve been talking to Westinghouse regularly about the shield building since October 2008, and we’ve consistently laid out our questions to the company,” said Michael Johnson, director of the NRC’s Office of New Reactors. “This is a situation where fundamental engineering standards will have to be met before we can begin determining whether the shield building meets the agency’s requirements.”

Spokesperson Rick Rhodes said Duke is closely monitoring the situation.

“Duke Energy is certainly following the activities closely related to the NRC release yesterday,” Rhodes said. “...We do expect close scrutiny with any new (reactor) designs. We have been actively engaged with Westinghouse and the NRC on this issue, and knew that the NRC would require additional analysis, testing or actual design changes. We believe that the AP1000 design is fundamentally sound, and with a few changes to the design configuration, can be demonstrated to fully satisfy NRC’s requirements. We are confident that Westinghouse and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will resolve any issues with the AP1000 design and do not anticipate any major issues with our proposed evaluation of the Lee site.”