Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. Photographer:John Swarey
Plant Aerial Views and Maps
Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power plant covering 500 acres (2 kmē) near Shippingport, Pennsylvania, 34 miles (54 km) west by north of Pittsburgh.
The Beaver Valley plant is owned (100 % ownership) by the First Energy Nuclear Operating Corporation. First Energy is the holding company for Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, and the Pennsylvania Power Company.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
Millstone nuclear power station units 2 and 3 are located at a former quarry in Waterford, Connecticut. The site covers about 500 acres (2 kmē). The Millstone complex was built by a consortium of utilities.
Millstone 1 was a General Electric boiling water reactor shut down in November 1995 before being permanently closed in July 1998.
Units 2 and 3, both pressurized water reactors (one from Westinghouse and one from Combustion Engineering) were sold to Dominion and continue to operate. Both units were shut down between 1996 and 1998 due to safety problems.
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland. The plant has two Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors.
In 2000, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the license of the plant for 20 additional years, making Calvert Cliffs the first nuclear plant in the United States to receive such an extention. The plant was visited by President George W. Bush in June 2005, the first time a president had visited a nuclear power plant in nearly three decades.
Constellation Energy, owner of Calvert Cliffs, intends to build a new nuclear reactor either at this site or at Nine Mile Point. See Nuclear Power 2010 Program.
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. Photographer:John Swarey
Now the only nuclear power plant operating in Massachusetts, Pilgrim Station is located a few miles down the coast from Plymouth Rock. Like many similar plants, it was constructed by Bechtel, and is powered by a General Electric boiling water reactor and generator.
Built at a cost of $231 million in 1972 by Boston Edison, it was sold in 1999 to the Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation, part of a complex deal that is the result of deregulation of the electrical utility industry. (Boston Edison sold the rest of its 12 non-nuclear power plants to Sithe Energies Inc., a French-controlled power company, in 1997.)
As with all the more than 100 nuclear power plants in the country, Pilgrim keeps its spent nuclear fuel in an on-site storage pool, waiting for a federal decision to determine where to inter the waste for the thousands of years it remains radioactive. The Yucca Mountain site in Nevada is the only location being considered for this purpose.
Pilgrim's license to operate expires in 2012.
The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, more commonly known as Seabrook Station, is a nuclear power plant located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately 60 mi (100 km) north of Boston and 10 mi (16 km) south of Portsmouth, NH. The station is one of three nuclear generating stations operated primarily by Florida Power & Light (FPL) (the other two are in Florida). Although the construction permit for the plant was granted in 1976, the station's operation was delayed because of politics and controversy. It began operating at full power 1990. Initially two reactors were planned, but the second unit was never completed due to troubles obtaining financing. The second reactor building was mothballed and eventually removed. The plant was originally owned by more than 6 separate companies, most of which sold their stake to Florida Power & Light in 2002. FPL now owns 88.2% of Seabrook Station.
The 1976 controversy involved the Clamshell Alliance, an organization formed to protest the construction of the plant. Several small demonstrations at the site occurred in the lead-up to a massive occupation of Seabrook. More than 2,000 members of the Clamshell Alliance occupied the site in April, 1977. 1,414 of the activists were arrested and held for two weeks refusing bail. Opposition to the plant has been generally quiet since construction was completed, although there is some public concern about security.
Another vocal opponent of the plant was former Massachusetts Governor, Michael Dukakis, who blocked the opening for several years, due to environmental issues, as well as the fact that an adequate emergency evacuation plan had not been established to his satisfaction. (The NRC had stipulated that workable evacutation plans needed to be in place for all towns within a ten-mile radius of the plant, and four of those towns were in Massachusetts, and thus Governor Dukakis' approval was needed to move forward.)
Hope Creek Nuclear is a thermal nuclear power plant located by Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey on the same site as the two unit Salem Nuclear. The plant is owned and operated by PSEG Nuclear LLC, which as of June, 2005 was in merger talks with Exelon Corporation. It has one unit (one reactor), a boiling water reactor (BWR) manufactured by General Electric. It has a generating capacity of 1,049 MWe. The plant came online on July 25, 1986, and its license to operate expires April 11, 2026 (although an extension is probable).
Hope Creek is one of only four nuclear power units in New Jersey (the others are the two at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, and the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station) - together they produce over half (53% in 2003) of the electricity consumed by New Jersey. (The other 50% of the state's power is generated by approximately 250 generating units of various types [coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydro power, waste, and other].) Its license to operate will expire on April 11, 2026
Oyster Creek nuclear power station is a single unit thermal boiling water reactor power plant located on an 800-acre site adjacent to the Oyster Creek in Forked River, part of Lacey Township in Ocean County, New Jersey.
The facility is located and is owned and operated by AmerGen Energy. It is the oldest operating commercial power plant in the United States.
Unit One is a 610 MWe nuclear boiling water reactor. It first came online on December 1, 1969, and it is licenced to operate through April 4, 2009. The reactor gets its cooling water from the Atlantic Ocean.
The Salem Nuclear Power Plant is a two unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power station located in southern New Jersey in the United States. It is owned by PSEG Nuclear LLC. and Exelon Generation LLC. The reactors, both PWRs, were built by Westinghouse, and began commercial operation in 1977 (unit 1) and 1981 (unit 2). The plant has a capacity of 2212MW. Unit one is licenced to operate until August 13, 2016 and Unit Two is licenced to operate until April 18, 2020.
Salem shares an artificial island with the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station.
The James A. Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant is located near Oswego, New York. It has one General Electric boiling water reactor. The 900 acre (3.6 kmē) site is also the location of two other units at the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station.
Fitzpatrick was originally built by Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation - however, it and half of the Nine Mile Point site were transferred to the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY), later called the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The reactor is now owned and operated by Entergy.
Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) is a three-unit nuclear power plant station located in Buchanan, New York just south of Peekskill, New York. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) north of New York City. The plant, which includes two operating Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation; Entergy also owns the intact decommissioned Indian Point Unit 1 reactor. Total employment at the site is 1500.
The two reactors were built in 1974 and 1976. Activists have been calling for the shutdown of Indian Point since 1979 when a meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania demonstrated the possible dangers of placing nuclear reactors near areas of heavy population density. Since September 11, 2001, there has been renewed interest in mothballing the plant. Some have even called the site a "weapon of mass destruction". They argue that an explosion in or around the plant, or airplane crash on the containment buildings above the three reactors at Indian Point could cause nuclear fallout that might reach populated areas including New York City, northern New Jersey, and Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Supporters of nuclear energy point to the need for stable power near the New York metropolitan area, the 2003 North America blackout has demonstrated the importance of energy independence. They also state that nuclear power is environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel in terms of air pollution. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently approved an evacuation plan. The Indian Point plant produces 2,000 megawatts of electricity for nearly 2 million homes in the New York metropolitan area.
After years of problems with the Indian Point siren alert system an independent monitoring system at www.ipradmon.com [1] went into action offering the public radiation alerts by email in the event of an emergency at Indian Point. The alerts are offered by subscription and are sent to any cell phone, BlackBerry, computer or other email addressable device. The Indian Point Area Radiation Monitoring alert service [2] became available after continued failures in the official alert system. In addition to problems with the sirens, in September of 2005 the NRC itself withheld for 18 days notification of a leak at Indian Point. One of the benefits of this new technology is that it alerts people even if they are outside of the 10 mile radius around the plant that is served by the sirens.
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Approx. 2,000 Megawatts (MWe)
Approx. 1,500
Reactor diagram for unit 2
HBO has aired a documentary surrounding the controversy called Indian Point: Imagining The Unimaginable. [3] It first aired on September 9th, 2004, and was directed by Rory Kennedy.
In the October/November 2005 edition of The Indypendent (a newspaper run by NYC Indymedia), Alex Matthiessen reported that Indian Point, about 35 miles from Times Square, remains a terrorist target. Former FEMA director James Lee Witt has said that Indian Point's emergency plan does "not consider the possibilities of a terrorist-caused event," emphasizing that an evacuation in the event of an attack would be impossible given the area's congested roads and population density. More than 400 politicians (including 11 members of Congress), 500 local businesses, and over 200 police officers, firefighters, bus drivers, school teachers, and hospital workers, have called for the plant's closing, criticizing, among other things, its unworkable emergency plan. Yet, in 2003, Michael Brown and Joe Allbaugh certified the plant for operation and approved the evacuation plan. In response, Sue Kelly, a Republican congresswoman from Westchester, accused the pair of "bureaucratic rubber stamping." Allbaugh and Brown have also been cited for responsibility in the botched response to Hurricane Katrina. The United States military is currently tasked with that reponsibility of defending Indian Point.
Critics of a terrorist attack at Indian Point claim that commercial nuclear power plants are the best protected civilian sites in the U.S. They note that there are many more dangerous chemical plants, also located near large metropolitan areas, that do not have the same security standards.
The book Night Siege, by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, details an infamous incident where UFOs flew over the plant and explains that a massive coverup was done like at Roswell in 1947. Since there has been no credible evidence of UFOs from extra-terrestrial locations, this has never been a concern.
Nine Mile Point nuclear power station units 1 and 2 are General Electric boiling water reactors sited near Oswego, New York. The 900 acre (3.6 kmē) site is also occupied by the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Generating Station. Nine Mile Point 1 is one of the Nation's two oldest reactors still in service (it is mentioned in the unique reactors feature elsewhere on this site).
Nine Mile Point is operated by Constellation Nuclear. Unit 1 is owned entirely by Constellation Energy Group, which shares ownership of unit 2 with the Long Island Power Authority (18% LIPA, 82% Constellation).
Constellation intends to build a new nuclear reactor either at this site or at Calvert Cliffs. See Nuclear Power 2010 Program.
Rochester Gas & Electric's Ginna nuclear power plant is near Rochester, New York, in the United States. It is a single unit Westinghouse 2-Loop pressurized water reactor, similar to those at Point Beach, Kewaunee, and Prairie Island. This plant is operated by Rochester Gas & Electric Company and owned by the RGS Energy Group.
The Ginna plant was the site of a small nuclear accident when, on January 26, 1982, a small amount of radioactive steam leaked into the air after a tube ruptured. The leak which lasted 93 minutes led to the declaration of a site emergency.
The Limerick nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania is located next to the Schuylkill River in Limerick Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania northwest of Philadelphia. The facility has two General Electric boiling water reactor (BWR) units, cooled by natural draft cooling towers. PECO (now part of Exelon Corporation, which also owns Commonwealth Edison) owns and operates this facility.
PECO also owns and operates the Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station located on the Susquehanna River south of Harrisburg. The towers are crossflow natural draft cooling towers originally designed and constructed by The Marley Company of Mission, Kansas.
Peach Bottom NGS, a nuclear power plant, is located 60 miles (97 km) south of Harrisburg in Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River.
The history of Peach Bottom is a long one. Philadelphia Electric Company became one of the pioneers in the commercial nuclear industry when it ordered Peach Bottom 1 in 1958. The U.S.'s first nuclear power plant (the Shippingport Reactor) had gone on line a year earlier. Peach Bottom Unit 1 operated from 1966 to 1974. The other two units, General Electric boiling water reactors, are still in operation on the 620 acre (2.5 kmē) site.
Peach Bottom is operated by the Exelon Corporation and is jointly owned by Exelon (50 %) and PSEG Power LLC (50 percent).
Peach Bottom was one of the plants analyzed in the NUREG-1150 safety analysis study.
The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power station, is in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. It has two General Electric boiling water reactors on a site of 1,075 acres (4.4 kmē), with about 1,000 employees working on site and another 250 employees in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a civilian nuclear power plant located on an artificial island (Three Mile Island) in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. It was originally built with two pressurized water reactors (TMI-1 and TMI-2), but after TMI-2 suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, its core was removed from the site. For more information on the nuclear accident, see the page on Three Mile Island, which discusses it exclusively.
The station is currently owned by Exelon Corporation and is operated by AmerGen Energy.
TMI-1 is an 816 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by Babcock and Wilcox. It first came online on April 19, 1974, and is licensed to operate through April 19, 2014. When TMI-2 suffered its meltdown in 1979, TMI-1 was offline for refueling. It came back online in October 1985, after a number of technical, legal, and regulatory complications. In 2003, TMI-1 generated 6,197,031 MWh of electricity at a capacity factor of 86.5%.
TMI-2 was also supplied by Babcock and Wilcox, and first came online in December 1978. It was only online for 90 days before it was ruined by a loss of coolant accident which caused a partial meltdown in March 1979. For more information about TMI-2, and the meltdown, see the Three Mile Island page, which discusses it extensively.
Vermont Yankee is a boiling water reactor (BWR) type nuclear power plant currently owned by Entergy Nuclear. It is located in the town of Vernon, Vermont and generates approximately 535 megawatts (MWe) of electricity. The plant began commercial operations in 1972.
On July 31, 2002, Entergy's Non-Utility Nuclear business purchased Vermont Yankee from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation for $180 million. Entergy received the plant, nuclear fuel, inventories, and related real estate. The liability to decommission the plant, as well as related decommissioning trust funds of approximately $310 million, was also transferred to Entergy. The acquisition included a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) under which the former owners will buy the power produced by the plant, which is past the expiration date of the current operating license for the plant on March 21, 2012.
Vermont Yankee generates one-third of the electricity used in Vermont.
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Region 2
The Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellefonte nuclear power plant is located in Hollywood, Alabama.
The two pressurized water reactors on the site were made by Babcock and Wilcox, the same manufacturer as at Three Mile Island. They are unfinished, mothballed in 1988 after a $6 billion investment.
On September 22, 2005 it was announced that Bellefonte had been selected as the site for an AP-1000 pressurized water reactor. For details, see Nuclear Power 2010 Program.
The Brown's Ferry nuclear power plant is located on the Tennessee River near Decatur, Alabama. The site has three boiling water reactor (BWR) nuclear generating units and is owned entirely by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
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Unit One is a 1,065 MWe BWR built by General Electric which originally came online on Dec. 20, 1973, and is licensed to operate through Dec. 20, 2013. However, Unit One shutdown for a year after a fire in 1975 caused major damage to the unit. The unit was subsequently repaired and operated from 1976 through 1985, but has not operated since. The fire was caused by a worker using a candle to search for air leaks accidentally set cables on fire - this later resulted in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission making significant additions to the standards for fire protection. Units Two and Three were not affected by the accident.
Efforts are now under way to restore Unit One to operational status. The TVA is spending $1.8 billion (U.S.) to do so. The present schedule is to bring Unit One back online in 2007.
Unit Two is a 1,113 MWe BWR built by General Electric which originally came online on Aug. 2, 1974, and is licensed to operate through June 28, 2014. Unit Two generated 8,911,261 Megawatthours of electricity in 2003, achieving a capacity factor of 94.1%.
Unit Three is a 1,113 MWe BWR built by General Electric which originally came online on Aug 18., 1976, and is licensed to operate through July 2, 2016. Unit Three generated 9,260,078 Megawatthours, achieving a capacity factor of 99%.
The Joseph M. Farley twin unit nuclear power station is located near Dothan, Alabama. Its 1,850 acre (7.4 kmē) site in Houston County, Alabama is largely wooded and agricultural.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
Operated by Southern Nuclear Operation Company, the plant is owned by the Alabama Power Company (a subsidiary of Southern Company) and is named in honor of the company's first president and the former CEO of Southern Nuclear Operating Company.
Unit 1 was shut down briefly after experiencing a control rod problem but was restarted on June 22, 2005.
The Crystal River Energy Complex, a nuclear power plant, is located in Citrus County, Florida near Crystal River, Florida. The site consists of approximately 4,700 acres (19 kmē). The single pressurized water reactor shares the site with 4 fossil-fueled generators. The reactor is rated to produce 842 megawatts of electric power.
This plant has one Babcock and Wilcox pressurized water reactor.
Originally was owned by Florida Progress Corporation but, in 2000, was bought by Carolina Power & Light to form the new company, Progress Energy, which currently runs the plant.
The twin nuclear reactors at St. Lucie nuclear power station are on Hutchinson Island, near Ft. Pierce, in St. Lucie County in the U.S. state of Florida. Both units are Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors. Florida Power & Light commissioned the station in 1976 and continues to own and operate the station.
In 2003 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the operating licenses of the St. Lucie units by twenty years, to March 1, 2036 for unit 1 and to April 6, 2043 for unit 2 [1].
The twin reactors at Turkey Point nuclear power station are on a 3,300 acre (13 kmē) site in Homestead, Florida near Miami, Florida, in Dade County, Florida.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
Turkey Point was hit directly by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Over $90 million of damage was done, largely to a water tank and to a smokestack of one of the fossil-fueled units on-site, but the containment buildings were undamaged [1] [2].
The Edwin I. Hatch nuclear power plant is near Baxley, Georgia, on a 2,244 acre (9 kmē) site. It has two General Electric boiling water reactors. The Hatch plant is operated by the Southern Nuclear Operating Company )a subsidiary of Southern Company). Hatchs owners include: Georgia Power Company (50.1 %), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30 %), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (17.7 %), and the Dalton Water & Light Sinking Fund Commission (2.2 %).
The Vogtle nuclear power plant is located in Burke County, Georgia, near Augusta, Georgia.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
During Vogtles construction, costs skyrocketed from an estimated $660 million to $8.87 billion. This was typical of the time due to increased regulations after the Three Mile Island accident.
The Brunswick nuclear power plant, named for the county in which it is located, covers 1,200 acres (4.9 kmē). The site is adjacent to an agricultural area and to wetlands and woodlands.
The site contains two General Electric boiling water reactors.
The majority owner (81.7 %) and operator of the Brunswick nuclear plant is the Progress Energy Corporation. The North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency owns the remaining 18.3 %.
The McGuire nuclear power plant is located about 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, on a 32,500 acre (132 kmē) lake, created in 1963 by Duke Power for the Cowens Ford Hydroelectric Station. The McGuire units use the lake's water for cooling.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
The Shearon Harris nuclear power plant is a Westinghouse designed pressurized-water nuclear reactor operated by Progress Energy. Located in New Hill, North Carolina about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Raleigh, it generates 860 MWe, has a 525 foot (160 m) natural draft cooling tower, and uses Harris Lake for cooling. The reactor achieved criticality in January 1987 and began providing power commercially in May of that year.
The Catawba nuclear power plant has a pair of Westinghouse pressurized water reactors. Catawba is located on a 391 acre (1.6 kmē) peninsula near York, South Carolina.
South Carolina is the third largest generator of nuclear electricity. The Catawba plant is the largest in the State (although, with three reactors, the Oconee plant has the most nuclear capacity in the southeastern United States).
The Oconee Nuclear Station is located in Seneca, South Carolina, and has an energy output capacity of over 2,500 megawatts. It is the second nuclear power plant in the United States to have its license extended by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the application for the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland preceded it).
This plant has three Babcock and Wilcox pressurized water reactors, and is operated by Duke Power.
According to Duke Power's web site, the station has generated more than 500 million megawatt hours of electricity, and is "the first nuclear station in the United States to achieve this milestone." [1]
The H.B. Robinson nuclear power plant is on a 5,000 acre (20 kmē) site near Hartsville, South Carolina, USA, which includes the source of cooling water for the reactor.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
The H.B. Robinson power plant does not rely on nuclear power alone. In fact, unit 1 is a coal-fired generator.
The Virgil C. Summer nuclear power station occupies a site near Jenkinsville, South Carolina in Fairfield County, South Carolina. The site includes the decommissioned experimental CVTR unit. Monticello reservoir provides cooling water and feeds a pumped storage unit.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
In 2001, the Summer unit operated at 79.9 percent of capacity, producing 6.76 billion kilowatthours of electricity.
About two-thirds (66.7 percent) of the Summer plant is owned by its operator, the South Carolina Electric & Gas Company. The remaining 33.3 percent is owned by the South Carolina Public Service Authority.
The Sequoyah nuclear power plant is located on 525 acres (2.1 kmē) near Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
Within months of starting operations, some 420,000 litres of radioactive coolant leaked due to operator error and several workers were exposed to radiation, but the spill was kept inside the containment building.
The Watts Bar nuclear power plant is located between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee on a 1,770 acre (7 kmē) site. The next-to-last reactor in alphabetical sequence, as of December 31, 2002 Watts Bar 1 was the last civilian reactor to come on-line in the United States. Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 250,000 households in the Tennessee Valley.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
Unit 2 was about 80 % complete when construction stopped in the early 1990s, in large part due to the protests of anti-nuclear activists.
The North Anna nuclear power plant is on a 1,075 acre (4.4 kmē) site in Louisa County, Virginia. North Anna is operated by Dominion Generation company. It is jointly owned by the Dominion Virginia Power corporation (88.4 %) and by the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (11.6 %).
The plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors which went on-line in 1978 and 1980 respectively.
An artificial lake, Lake Anna, was constructed on the North Anna River to provide a reservoir of water coolant for use with the nuclear plant.
The Surry nuclear power plant in Surry County, Virginia is named for the county in which it is located. The nuclear power plant is located on an 840 acre (3.4 kmē) site adjacent to the James River near historic Jamestown, Virginia.
Ownership:Surry is operated by Dominion Generation and owned by Dominion Resources, Inc.
The plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors which went on-line in 1972 and 1973 respectively.
Surry was one of the plants analyzed in the NUREG-1150 safety analysis study.
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Region 3
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Big Rock Point was a nuclear power plant in Charlevoix, Michigan. Big Rock operated from 1962 to 1997. It was owned and operated by Consumers Energy. Its boiling water reactor was capable of producing 67 megawatts of electricity.
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Big Rock was Michigan's first nuclear power plant and the nation's fifth. It also produced Cobalt 60 for the medical industry. Its license from the Atomic Energy Commission was issued on August 29, 1962. The first electricty was generated on December 8, 1962.
Consumers Energy had previous announced that Big Rock Point's operating license would not be renewed when it expired in 2000. However, economics proved in January 1997 that it was not feasible to keep Big Rock Point running to the license's expiration date.
Faced with a choice to shut down immediately or retire the plant with dignity after 35 years of operation, Consumers chose to run the plant to its 35th anniversary, giving employees time to prepare and having a ceremony that honored Big Rock Points contributions to the industry and many years of safe and reliable operation.
Because of its contributions to the nuclear and medical industries, the American Nuclear Society named Big Rock Point a Nuclear Historic Landmark.
The 235,000-pound reactor vessel was shipped to Barnwell, South Carolina in 2003.
All of Big Rock Point, including the spherical containment structure, was torn down. Other than eight spent fuel casks, there are few signs that the site was home to a nuclear power plant.
The Braidwood nuclear power plant is located in Will County in northeastern Illinois. It serves Chicago and northern Illinois with electricity.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
The recent uprates of Braidwood nuclear generating station make it the largest nuclear plant in the state, however the three largest Illinois nuclear power plants are nearly equal in generating capability (LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station is only 2MW less in capacity than Braidwood and Byron Nuclear Generating Station is only 4MW less in capacity than LaSalle).
The Byron nuclear power plant is located in Ogle County, Illinois. The facility has two Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors, unit 1 and unit 2, which first began operation in September 1985 and August 1987 respectively. The plant is owned and operated by Exelon Corporation.
The Clinton nuclear power station is a General Electric boiling water reactor located near Clinton, Illinois. It is on a 5,000 acre (20 kmē) with an adjacent cooling reservoir on 14000 acre (57 kmē). Clinton's final construction cost exceeded $4 billion, leading the plant to produce some of the most expensive power in the Midwest.
The Operator and Owner is the AmerGen Energy Company, but AmerGen itself is jointly owned by the Exelon Corporation.
Dresden, Illinois is the USAs first Nuclear Power Plant ever built. It was established in 1952. The three Dresden units are General Electric boiling water reactors. It is located on a 953 acre (3.9 kmē) site in Grundy County, Illinois. It serves Chicago and the northern quarter of the State of Illinois. Dresden 1 was retired in 1978.
The LaSalle County nuclear power station, located 11 miles southeast of Ottawa, Illinois serves Chicago and northern Illinois with electricity. It has two General Electric boiling water reactors. The plant is owned and operated by the Exelon Corporation.
The Quad Cities nuclear power plant has two General Electric boiling water reactors. It is named for the nearby cities known as the Quad Cities: Bettendorf, Iowa, Davenport, Iowa, Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, and East Moline, Illinois, USA. The power plant is not only named for these cities, but serves them, in addition to western part of Exelon's service territory. Quad Cities is owned and operated by Exelon Corporation.
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Unit 1
Nuclear system supplied by General Electric Company (U.S.)
|
|||||
|
Capacity
Net MW(e) |
Generation
in 2003 Megawatthours |
Capacity
Factor |
Type
|
On-line
Date |
License
Expiration Date |
|
855
|
5,709,520
|
90.6 %
|
BWR
|
Dec. 14, 1972
|
Dec. 14, 2012
|
|
Unit 2
Nuclear system supplied by General Electric Company (U.S.)
|
|||||
|
Capacity
Net MW(e) |
Generation
in 2003 Megawatthours |
Capacity
Factor |
Type
|
On-line
Date |
License
Expiration Date |
|
855
|
6,956,073
|
92.7 %
|
BWR
|
Dec. 14, 1972
|
Dec. 14, 2012
|
BWR= Boiling Water Reactor
Note: Unit 1 was uprated in capacity from 762 net MW(e).
The Duane Arnold Energy Center is located on a 500 acre (2 kmē) site two miles north of Palo, Iowa, or eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids. It is Iowa's only nuclear power plant.
DAEC entered operation in June, 1974. It currently generates a net power output of approximately 620 megawatts using a single General Electric boiling water reactor.
The majority owner and operator is Alliant Energy-Interstate Power and Light (70%). The Central Iowa Power Cooperative owns 20% and the Corn Belt Power Cooperative owns 10%.
The plant was recently sold to FPL Group, and is in the process of transferring ownership.
Donald C. Cook Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Bridgman,Michigan which is part of Berrien County, on a 650 acre (2.6 kmē) site near St. Joseph, Michigan, USA. The plant is owned and operated by American Electric Power (AEP). This is currently the company's only nuclear power plant.
This station has two pressurized water reactors, both made by Westinghouse. The turbines were manufactured by General Electric (Unit 1) and Brown Boveri (Unit 2). Unit 1 began operation in August of 1975 and is rated at 1,020 megawatts. Unit 2, rated at 1,090 megawatts, began operation in July of 1978.
Unit One's license runs through 2014 and Unit Two through 2017. Applications have been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 20 year extensions.
Named for the first physicist to create a nuclear reactor, the 'Enrico Fermi plant is located between Detroit, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio in northeastern Monroe County, Michigan
The 94MWe prototype fast breeder reactor Fermi 1 unit operated at the site from 1963 to 1972 and is now in the process of decommission. On October 5, 1966 Fermi-1 suffered a partial nuclear meltdown (see the discussion in List of nuclear accidents). No radiation was released off-site, and no one was injured.
Fermi 2 is a General Electric boiling water reactor operated by the Detroit Edison Company and owned (100 percent) by DTE Energy.
The Palisades nuclear power plant is located on a site of about 490 acres (2 kmē) near South Haven, Michigan. Palisades is operated by the Nuclear Management Company and owned by CMS Energy Corporation.
Palisades first generated electricity on December 31, 1971. Its single Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor is capable of generating 798 megawatts of electricity-18% of Consumers Energy's total electric capacity. The reactor vessel walls are made of steel 8.5 inches thick. The vessel weighs 425 tons.
On December 12, 2005 it was announced that the plant would be put up for sale at auction. [1]
The plant's current license expires on March 24, 2011. An application for 20 year extension was filed in 2005 with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Spent fuel rods are stored outdoors in nine 16-foot-tall casks, each containing 30 tons and resting on a concrete pad. This is a temporary solution until the spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain opens.
The Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant, (a nuclear power plant), is an electricity-generating facility located in Monticello, Minnesota along the Mississippi River. The site, which began operating in 1970, has a single nuclear reactor (boiling water reactor) of the General Electric BWR-3 design generating 553 megawatts. It is owned by Northern States Power Company (NSP), today a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, and is operated by Nuclear Management Company (NMC).
On November 19, 1971, a water storage facility at the site overflowed, releasing 50,000 US gallons (190 mģ) of radioactive waste water into the Mississippi. Some radioactive substances later entered the downstream St. Paul water system.
The reactor is currently licensed to operate until 2010, though Xcel has asked that this time be extended. It is also likely that the facility will start storing radioactive waste in steel dry casks on-site in the coming years, like the downriver Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant has been doing since the 1990s.
The Prairie Island nuclear power plant is an electricity-generating facilitiy located in Welch, Minnesota along the Mississippi River. The plant, which first began operating in 1973, has two nuclear reactors (pressurized water reactors) made by Westinghouse that produce a total 1,076 megawatts of power. They are licensed to operate through 2013 and 2014. The plant is owned by Northern States Power Company (NSP), today a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, and is operated by the Nuclear Management Company (NMC). It is one of two active nuclear facilities in Minnesota and has proven to be the most controversial due to the storage of nuclear waste in large steel casks on-site, an area which is a floodplain of the Mississippi.
NSP had initially intended to send radioactive waste to a storage facility operated by the United States federal government, but no such site is yet open for use (the Yucca Mountain facility is under construction, but heavy opposition means that it may not ever open). In 1991, the company requested permission from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to eventually store waste in 48 dry casks on the site. Opposition by environmentalists and the local Prairie Island Indian Community led the Minnesota Legislature to decrease the number of allowed casks to 17, enough to keep the plant operating through approximately 2003.
Eventually, those casks filled, and Xcel Energy requested that the limit be expanded beyond 17 casks. The legislature granted the request, but required the company to make greater use of renewable energy such as wind power and to pay the local Indian community up to $2.5 million per year.
In September 2004, Xcel requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission extend the licenses of the reactors beyond 2013/2014. The company has also requested the use of a similar storage system at its Monticello plant, which is currently licensed through 2010.
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant is a single unit nuclear reactor located in Oak Harbor, Ohio. It is owned and operated by FirstEnergy Corp. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Davis-Besse has been the source of two of the top five most dangerous nuclear incidents in the United States since 1979.
Unit One is a 873 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by Babcock and Wilcox. The reactor was shut down from 2002 until early 2004 for safety repairs and upgrades, so recent operational statistics are not yet available for the unit.
In 1985, the two main feedwater pumps, used to remove heat from the nuclear reactor steam generators, shut down. One tripped on overspeed due to a pump turbine control system electronic failure. The second tripped on a momentary high discharge pressure signal caused by the second pump attempting to make up for the flow lost by the tripping of the first pump. A control room operator attempted to start the auxilary (emergency) feedwater pumps. They both tripped on overspeed because the operator had pushed the incorrect buttons during the start attempt. Based on the probability of a nuclear meltdown, the NRC rated this the most dangerous nuclear incident since Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown. This incident is described in US NRC publication NUREG-1154.
In March 2002, after the government had allowed a delay in safety inspections past a December 31, 2001 deadline, it was discovered that boric acid had eaten almost all the way through the top of a 6―-inch thick reactor pressure vessel. A breach might have partially flooded the reactor's containment building with radioactive water and damaged safety equipment, possibly causing fuel damage. The reactor was shut down for two years, during which time further design flaws were discovered in the plant that increased the likelihood of a fuel damage incident. It is possible for fuel damage to progress to an accident that might allow the release of radioactive elements. The incident was ranked fifth most dangerous by the NRC. Repairs and upgrades cost $600 million, and the Davis-Besse reactor was restarted in March of 2004.
The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is a General Electric boiling water reactor owned by FirstEnergy and located on 1,100 acres (4.5 kmē) outside of Cleveland in Perry, Ohio. Built at a cost of $6 billion, Perry is one of the most expensive power plants ever built.
The Kewaunee nuclear power plant occupies a 900-acre site in Carlton, Wisconsin, 27 miles Southeast of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Kewaunee was the fourth nuclear plant built in Wisconsin, and the 44th built in the United States.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
The plant is owned and operated by Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources.
Wisconsin Electric Power's nuclear power plant is located near Two Rivers, Wisconsin and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA. Management of the site was consolidated with the Kewaunee plant. Point Beach is operated by the Nuclear Management Company.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
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Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) is a two unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant located in Russellville, Arkansas. It is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear.
Unit One has a generating capacity of 846 MWe of electricity, and came online on May 21, 1974. It is licenced to operate through May 20, 2014. Its nuclear reactor was supplied by Babcock and Wilcox.
Unit Two has a generating capacity of 930 MWe of electricity, and came online on Sept. 1,1978. It is licenced to operate through July 17, 2018. Its nuclear reactor was supplied by Combustion Engineering.
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear power plant located in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 50 miles (80 km) west of central Phoenix, is currently the largest nuclear generation facility in the world, producing over 30,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually to serve approximately 4 million people. Arizona Public Service holds the majority ownership of the station and operates the facility. Other partial owners include Salt River Project, El Paso Electric Co., Southern California Edison, Public Service Co. of New Mexico, Southern California Public Power Authority, and the Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power.
The facility is on 4,000 acres (16 kmē) of land and consists of three Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors, each with an original capacity of 1,270 megawatts. The plant is a major source of power for Phoenix and Southern California, capable of serving about 4 million people. The plant was fully operational by 1988, taking twelve years to build and costing $5.9 billion, eventually employing about 2,500 people.
Due to its location in the Arizona desert, Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not located adjacent to a large body of water. Instead, it uses treated sewage from several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling water needs, recycling 20 billion gallons of wastewater each year. At the nuclear plant site, it is further treated and stored in an 80 acre (324,000 mē) reservoir for use in the plant's cooling towers. Over 20 billion US gallons (76,000,000 mģ) of this waste water are recycled each year.
The nuclear steam supply for each unit was designed and supplied by Combustion Engineering, designated the System 80 standard design - a predecessor of the newer standard System 80+ design. Each primary system originally supplied 3817 MW of thermal energy to the secondary (steam) side of each plant. The design is a so-called 2 x 4, with each of four main reactor coolant pumps circulating more than 111,000 gallons per minute of primary-side water through 2 large steam generators.
The main turbine generators were supplied by General Electric and when installed were the largest in the world, capable of generating 1447 MW of electricity each.
Bechtel Power Corporation was the Architect/Engineer/Constructor for the facility initially under the direction of the Arizona Nuclear Power Project (a joint APS/SRP endeavor), later managed exclusively by Arizona Public Service. Edwin E. Van Brunt was the key APS executive in charge of engineering, construction, and early operations of the plant. William E. Bingham was the Bechtel Chief Engineer for the project.
Unlike most multi-unit nuclear power plants, each unit at Palo Verde is an independent power plant, sharing only a few minor systems. The reactor containment buildings are some of the largest in the world at about 2.6 million cubic feet enclosed. The design incorporates many features to enhance safety by addressing issues identified earlier in the operation of commercial nuclear reactors. The design is also one of the most spacious internally, providing exceptional room for the conduct of operations and maintenance by the operating staff.
The Palo Verde 525 kV switchyard is a key point in the western states power grid, and is used as a reference point in the pricing of electricity across the southwest United States.
The site was granted a construction permit for two additional units in the late 1970's, however these units were cancelled in the mid-1980s for economical risk reasons. Contrary to popular belief, the two additional units would not have been on the same arc as the three existing units - they would have been arranged south of Unit 3 on a north-south axis. As originally conceived they would have used dry cooling towers rather than the forced-draft wet cooling towers used in the existing design.
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-Loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about 903 acres (3.7 kmē) in Avila Beach, California. Together, the twin 1,100 megawatt reactors produce about 18,000 GWh of electricity annually, supplying the electrical needs of more than 2.2 million people.
Diablo Canyon is designed to withstand an earthquake of .75 gs from four faults, including the San Andreas and Hosgri faults. Equipped with advanced seismic monitoring and safety systems, the plant is designed to shutdown safely in the event of significant ground motion.
The plant draws its secondary cooling water from the Pacific Ocean, and during heavy storms both units are throttled back to 80% power to prevent kelp from entering the cooling water intake.
Unit One is a 1,087MEe Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by Westinghouse. It came online on November 2, 1984 and is licensed to operate through September 22, 2021. In 2003, Unit one generated 9,585,431 Megawatthours of electricity, at a capacity factor of 100.4%.
Unit Two is a 1,087 MEe Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by Westinghouse. It came online on August 26, 1985 and is licensed to operate through April 26, 2025. In 2003, Unit two generated 7,699,608 megawatthours of electricity, at a capacity factor of 80.6%.
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located on the Pacific coast in San Onofre, California. The 84 acre (340,000 mē) site is near San Clemente, California, in San Diego County, California and surrounded by the San Onofre State Park.
Unit 1 is no longer in service. This reactor was a first generation Westinghouse pressurized water reactor that operated for 25 years, closing permanently in 1992. Units 2 and 3, Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors, continue to operate.
San Onofre power plant is operated by Southern California Edison. The ownership set up is as follows: Edison International (75.1 %), San Diego Gas & Electric Company (20 %), Anaheim Public Utilities Department (3.2 %), and the Riverside Utilities Department (1.8 %).
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The Vallecitos
boiling water reactor (VBWR) was the first privately owned and operated
nuclear power plant to deliver significant quantities of electricity to a
public utility grid. During the period October
1957 to December
1963, it delivered
approximately 40,000 megawatt-hours of electricity. This reactor - a light-water
moderated and cooled, enriched uranium reactor using stainless steel-clad,
plate-type fuel - was a pilot plant and test bed for fuel, core components,
controls, and personnel training for the
Dresden Nuclear Power Plant, a Commonwealth Edison station built in
Illinois
five years later.
The plant was a collaborative effort of the General Electric Company and Pacific Gas and Electric Company with Bechtel Corporation serving as engineering contractor. Samuel Untermyer, the GE engineer responsible for the initial design of the VBWR, had performed much of the conceptual research at Argonne National Laboratory while conducting heat transfer and nuclear physics experiments, including the BORAX experiments (boiling reactor experiment).
Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Station, a nuclear power plant located in Burlington, Kansas, occupies 9,818 acres (40 kmē) of the total 11,800 acres (48 kmē) controlled by the owner. Wolf Creek lake provides not only the name, but cooling water for the reactor.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
The Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation operates the power plant. The ownership is divided between Kansas Gas & Electric Co. (47 %), Kansas City Power & Light Co. (47 %), and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (6 %).
River Bend nuclear power station is a General Electric boiling water reactor on a 3,300 acre (13 kmē) site in St. Francisville, Louisiana near the State Capitol.
River Bend is operated by Entergy Nuclear and owned by Entergy Gulf States, Inc.
Entergy intends to build a new nuclear reactor at this site. See Nuclear Power 2010 Program.
The Waterford Steam Electric Station, Unit 3, also known as Waterford 3, is a nuclear power plant located on a 3,000-acre (12-kmē) up-river from Hahnville, Louisiana, in St. Charles Parish.
This plant has one Combustion Engineering two-loop pressurized water reactor. The plant produces 1,164 megawatts of electricity since the power uprate implemented in July 2005 and has a dry ambient pressure containment building.
Waterford is operated by Entergy Nuclear and is owned by Entergy Louisiana, Inc.
On August 28, 2005, Waterford shut down due to Hurricane Katrina approaching and declared an unusual event. Shortly after Katrina, Waterford restarted and now is in normal operation.
Grand Gulf nuclear power station is a General Electric boiling water reactor. It lies on a 2,100 acre (8.5 kmē) site near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The site is wooded and contains two lakes. The plant has a 520 foot (158 m) cooling tower.
Grand Gulf is operated by Entergy Nuclear and owned jointly by System Energy Resources, Inc., (90 %) and by South Mississippi Electric Power Association (10 %).
On September 22, 2005 it was announced that Grand Gulf had been selected as the site for an ESBWR boiling water reactor. For details, see Nuclear Power 2010 Program.
This nuclear power plant is located on a 5,228 acre (21 kmē) site in Callaway County, Missouri, near Fulton, Missouri. Callaway unit 1 is the State's sole commercial nuclear unit.
This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor.
Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS) is a boiling water reactor (BWR) type nuclear power plant located on a 1,251 acre (5.1 kmē) site near Brownville, Nebraska. It is the largest single unit electrical generator in Nebraska.
CNS was first put into operation in July 1974 and generates approximately 800 megawatts (MWe) of electricity.
The Cooper Nuclear Station is owned and operated by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD). Support services are provided by Entergy Nuclear Nebraska through 2014.
The facility is named after Humboldt, Neb., natives Guy Cooper, Jr., and Guy Cooper, Sr., in recognition of their contribution to public power in Nebraska.
The Fort Calhoun Station is a nuclear power plant located on 660 acres (2.7 kmē) near Omaha, Nebraska. The utility has an easement for another 580 acres (2.3 kmē), the land being maintained in a natural state.
This plant has one Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor.
The power plant is owned and operated by the Omaha Public Power District.
The Pathfinder Atomic Power Plant, a nuclear power plant built by Northern States Power Company near Sioux Falls, is considered the world's first all-nuclear power plant. After only one year's operation, however, it was converted to a conventional power plant because of technical problems.
The Pathfinder location is now known as Angus Anson Generating Station, which was formally established in 1994, when two peaking units were installed to provide additional generation to the Sioux Falls area. The site previously was home to the Pathfinder plant, which was originally built as a pilot nuclear plant - a facility that laid the groundwork for the company's successful nuclear operations at Monticello and Prairie Island. Pathfinder later was converted to an oil and gas-fired peaking facility, although it is no longer operating.
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The Comanche Peak nuclear power plant is located in Somervell County, Texas. It relies on nearby Squaw Creek reservoir for cooling water. The plant has about 1,300 employees.
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
The South Texas Nuclear Generating Station, also known as the South Texas Project (STP), is a nuclear power station located in Bay City, Texas, United States The STP occupies a 12,200 acre (49 kmē) site on the Colorado River located about 90 miles (145 km) southwest of Houston. The STP was the first nuclear power plant in Texas. In 1996, the two South Texas units, both Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, were two of the top 20 electricity generating nuclear units worldwide.
STP is unique in its design of the safety systems for the reactors. Each unit has three, rather than the customary two, fully independent emergency core cooling systems and associated support systems. However the addition of the third safety train was not fully recognized and credited by nuclear safety regulations during the plant licensing process. The third ECCS system provides significant real risk reduction, and the utility undertook efforts to gain regulatory recognition of these features. These efforts led in part to the plants engineering staff becoming early industry leaders in analytical risk modeling and real-time management of risk during operations and maintenance activities.
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On December 6, 1971, Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P), the City of Austin, the City of San Antonio, and the Central Power and Light Co. (CPL) initiated a feasibility study of constructing a jointly-owned nuclear plant. The initial cost estimate for the plant was $974 million.
By mid-1973, HL&P and CPL had chosen Bay City as the site for the project and San Antonio had signed on as a partner in the project. Brown and Root was selected as the architect and construction company. In November, voters in Austin approved their city's participation and the city signed onto the project on December 1. Austin would have a several more referendums through the years on whether to stay in the project or not.
An application for plant construction permits was submitted to the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)) in May, 1974 and the NRC issued the permits on December 22, 1975. Construction started in 1976.
By 1981, the South Texas Project was four years behind schedule and had substantial cost overruns. Brown and Root revised their completion schedule to June, 1989 and the cost estimate to $4.4-$4.8 billion. Brown and Root was relieved as architect in September and Bechtel Corporation contracted to replace them. Less then two months later, Brown and Root withdrew as the construction contractor and Ebasco Constructors was hired to replace them in February, 1982.
Austin voters authorized the City Council on November 3, 1981 to sell the city's 16 percent interest in the STP. No buyers were found.
Unit 1 reached initial criticality on March 8, 1988 and went into commercial operation on August 25. Unit 2 reached initial criticality on March 12, 1989 and went into commercial operation on June 19.
In February, 1993, both units had to be taken offline to resolve problems with the steam-driven auxiliary feedwater pumps. They were not back in service until March (Unit 1) and May (Unit 2) of 1994.
The STP owners sued Brown and Root for breach of contract on December 26, 1981. Brown and Root settled on May 30, 1985, agreeing to pay the STP owners $750 million.
On January 6, 1983, the City of Austin filed a lawsuit against HL&P for mismanagement of the project and seeking release from the STP Participation Agreement. The city filed another lawsuit on February 22, 1994 to recover fuel costs associated with the year-long outage at STP in 1993 and 1994. HL&P and Austin reached an out-of-court settlement on May 1, 1996 in which Austin would drop all litigation against HL&P, if HL&P would form a separate operating company to run the STP.
The Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear power station, is a General Electric boiling water reactor located 12 miles (19 km) NW of Richland, Washington. Its site covers 1,089 acres (4.4 kmē) of Benton County, Washington.
Construction delays and cost over-runs for this reactor drew considerable public and media attention. Construction began in 1972, but more than a decade passed before it began generating power.
This plant is owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a consortium of Pacific Northwest public utilities. Energy Northwest's original name was the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS), deridingly known as "Whoops." This is because WPPSS was responsible for the largest municipal bond default in US history. The plant's original name was WNP-2, Washington Nuclear Power System. Several years ago, WPPSS changed its name to Energy Northwest, and the plant's name was changed from WNP-2 to Columbia Generating Station, presumably in an attempt to distance both the owners and the plant from the past.
With its troubled history behind it, however, the reactor has performed very well. Of the five commercial reactors originally planned for the State of Washington, this reactor was the only one completed.
The plant's only reactor is a General Electric Type 5 rated at 1157 MWe. The plant single handedly provides Washington with 9% of its electrical generation capacity.
