Golfech Nuclear Power Plant

The Golfech Nuclear Power Plant is located in the commune of Golfech (Tarn-et-Garonne), on the border Garonne between Agen (30 km downstream) and Toulouse (90 km upstream) on the Garonne River, from where it gets cooling water, and approximately 40 km west of Montauban.

The Golfech Nuclear Power Plant has two operating nuclear reactors that are both Pressurized water reactors and of the French P'4 design. The plant also has two cooling towers that gets water from the Garonne River, but it only takes water to compensate for evaporation, the cooling loop is closed and water is never released back into the river.

In 2002 the plant produced nearly half of the electricity used in the area. It employs nearly 700 full time workers.

In 1965, the Midi-Pyrénées announced intention to construct a nuclear plant near Malause. EDF then went about securing a site for the station. In 1967 a board of inquiry initially laid out plans for two UNGG reactors with an output of 800 MWe each.

During falling Petroleum prices and conflicts between EDF and CEA, the project was delayed to be decided between 1967 and 1969. In 1969 after the leaving of Charles de Gaulle, CEA gave up on the UNGG plans.

In 1973, a nearby hydroelectric plant of 63 MW is finished and the regional manager for EDF announces plans for PWRs at the site to be finished by 1985.

In 1978, EDF announces that Golfech will be the site for 4 PWRs eventually of 1300 MWe each.

On June 17, 1979, 5000 protesters walked on the future site and released balloons.

These are all 1 on the INES scale and occurred in 1998.

  • on September 28 at the time of a check operation of the measuring equipment of the neutron flux in the middle of the reactor, the operator did not respond to one of the signals that should have been investigated.
  • on November 4 the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire discovered that on October 14, EDF ran the reactor with an overpower of 7% for 30 hours.
  • on November 27 the containment building is evacuated following the release of an alarm of atmospheric detection of radioactivity. Ten workers are slightly contaminated.

Penly Nuclear Power Plant

The Penly Nuclear power plant (Centrale nucléaire de Penly) is found some 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Dieppe. It lies on the border of two French municipalities: Penly and Saint-Martin-en-Campagne in the département of Seine-Maritime, Normandy, on the English Channel coast.

The Penly Nuclear power plant employs about 670 full time people and is owned and operated by the French company Électricité de France (EDF). Water from the English Channel is used for cooling.

The two PWR units are of the 1330 MWe class. The installed total output is 2764 MW, which means the plant is about average for French nuclear plants. It feeds on average about 18 billion kilowatt-hours per year into the public grid, corresponding to about 80% of the current annual consumption of Normandy. It is about ten kilometres from Dieppe.

In January 2009, the French government announced that a third reactor, the second French EPR reactor, would be built in Penly. Construction was announced for 2012 with connection to the grid following in 2017. GDF Suez is to own a part of the plant, with the majority taken by EdF.

Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant

The Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant is located at Flamanville, Manche, France on the Cotentin Peninsula.

It houses two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that produce 1300 MWe each and came into service in 1986 and 1987, respectively. It produced 18.9 TWh in 2005, which amounted to 4% of the electricity production in France. In 2006 this figure was about 3.3%.

Construction of Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant began on a new reactor, Flamanville 3, on 4 December 2007. The new unit is an Areva European Pressurized Reactor type and is planned to produce 1650 MWe from 2012 to 2072. EdF will invest some Eur 3.3 billion ($4.8 billion) during the construction phase.

In 2006, before the start of construction of unit 3, there were 671 workers regularly working at the two operational reactors.

EDF has previously said France’s first EPR will cost 4 billion euros and start commercial operations in 2013. The estimated cost has now increased to 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) with an unspecified delay to the planned start.

Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant
Official name Centrale Nucléaire de Flamanville
Country France
Locale Flamanville, Manche
Coordinates 49°32′11″N 1°52′54″W / 49.53639°N 1.88167°W / 49.53639; -1.88167 / 49.53639; -1.88167
Status Operational
Construction began 1979
Commission date December 4, 1985 (December 4, 1985)
2014 (Flamanville 3 scheduled)
Operator(s) EDF
Constructor(s) Bouygues

Turbine information
Manufacturer(s) Alstom

Power generation information
Installed capacity 2,764 MW
Annual generation 17,917 GW·h
Net generation 331,816 GW·h

Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant

The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant is a multi-unit nuclear plant under construction in Qinshan Town, Haiyan County, Zhejiang, the People's Republic of China. When completed, it may hold the record for the most nuclear reactors on one site; however, since the majority of the units are mid-size, it may be surpassed by other plants in terms of generating capacity. The construction of the units is divided into separate stages.

Stage I involved construction of the small-scale (~300 MW) Unit-1 only, but was the first domestically designed and constructed nuclear power plant in the nation (95 percent of components came from domestic manufactures). That unit has so far operated for more than 10 years without an event rating 2 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Stage II the next set of reactors were mid-scale plants (~600 MW) but still of Chinese design. The steam generators were made by the Shanghai Boiler Factory in conjunction with Westinghouse.

Stage III involves construction of CANDU-6 series of the CANDU reactor design supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. This was reported to be the largest business venture between Canada and China to that time. In 2001, it was visited by the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Stage IV

Stage V

Breakdown

Unit Type Status Net MW Gross MW First Output
Qinshan 1 PWR Operational 288 310 15 Dec 1991
Qinshan 2-1 PWR Operational 610 650 06 Feb 2002
Qinshan 2-2 PWR Operational 610 650 11 Mar 2004
Qinshan 2-3 PWR Operational 610 650 01 Aug 2010
Qinshan 2-4 PWR Under construction 610 650 ––
Qinshan 3-1 PHWR Operational 650 728 19 Nov 2002
Qinshan 3-2 PHWR Operational 650 728 12 Jun 2003
Qinshan IV-1 PHWR Under construction
700 ––
Qinshan IV-2 PHWR Under construction
700 ––
Qinshan V-1 PHWR Under construction
700 ––
Qinshan V-2





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Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant

The Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant is the highest-output nuclear power station in Germany, producing 2 × 1344 megawatts. It is located in Gundremmingen, district of Günzburg, Bavaria and is operated by Kernkraftwerk Gundremmingen GmbH, a joint operation of RWE Power AG, based in Essen (75%) and E.ON Kernkraft GmbH, based in Hannover (25%). Two units, B and C, are currently in operation. Unit A was the site of the first fatal accident in a nuclear power plant and subsequently of a major accident resulting in a total loss, the only such catastrophe to date in a nuclear power plant in Germany.

Reactor Units in Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant

Unit A

Unit A was a boiling water reactor with an output of 237 megawatts, the first large nuclear power plant in Germany. It was in operation from 1966 until 1977, and during its life generated a total of 138,000 kWh of energy.

Following objections by the city of Nuremberg to the original planned location on the Danube at Bertoldsheim (between Donauwörth und Neuburg an der Donau), because of protected areas for the city's drinking water supply in the Lech estuary, the plant was instead located approximately 50 km up-river in Gundremmingen, between Dillingen und Günzburg. The plant was proposed on July 13, 1962, quickly approved, on December 14, 1962, and placed in service in December 1966. A protest group, the Notgemeinschaft Atom-Kraftwerk Gundremmingen-Offingen (Gundremmingen-Offingen Atomic Power Plant Emergency Organization) was silenced using monies specifically set aside for the purpose.

In 1975 an incident occurred in which two workers were killed by escaping radioactive steam: the first fatal accident in a nuclear power plant.

On January 13, 1977 a serious accident occurred that resulted in the total loss of Unit A. In cold, damp weather, two high-tension lines carrying electricity from the plant short-circuited. The ensuing rapid shutdown of the reactor led to operational errors. Within approximately ten minutes, there was approximately 3 meters of standing water in the reactor building and the temperature had risen to approximately 80 degrees Celsius. Through error, too much water was introduced into the reactor for emergency cooling. Pressure relief valves released between 200 and 400 cubic meters (sources vary) of radioactive coolant water into the building. The water, and also the gases, were later released from the building into the environment.

This was Germany's first and up to the present only catastrophic loss of a nuclear power plant. Political and regulatory bodies required that in addition to repairs, the unit's control and safety systems be modernized. Because modernization would have required an investment of 180 million DM, and since Units B and C were already under construction, the operating authorities later decided not to return Unit A to service. The contaminated steel parts were contained in protective castings and removed to the interim radioactive storage location in Mitterteich.

In 1983 the decision was made to dismantle the unit. Dismantling was "far advanced" in 2005 and has led to valuable experience and the development of state of the art processes for the break-down, handling, and cleansing of radiation-contaminated materials. According to the operators, approximately 10,000 tonnes of scrap have been created in the process, of which 86% have been re-usable and 14% are to be disposed of in permanent storage as radioactive waste.

In January 2006 the Bayerische Staatsministerium für Umwelt, Gesundheit und Verbraucherschutz (Bavarian State Ministry for Environment, Health, and Consumer Safety) gave permission for the construction of a "technology center" within the confines of the former Unit A - with the exception of the reactor building. Following conversion and modernization, the following work will be possible there:

  • Treatment of remaining radioactive material with the objective of re-use
  • Mitigation of radioactive wastes
  • Servicing of components
  • Manufacture and storage until use of tools and equipment
  • Storage and preparation for transportation of treated and untreated wastes pending their conversion or removal from the site.

The statement of permission also allows venting of radioactive materials via the exhaust stacks. Maximum permitted annual radioactive emissions are: 50 MBq for aerosol radionucleides with half-lives greater than 8 days (excluding iodine-131), 0.5 Mbq for Iodine 131, and 100,000 MBq for tritium.

Units B and C

Units B and C are neighboring units of identical construction. Each consists of a reactor building, a machine shed, and a 160 m tall cooling tower. The two units share a 170 m tall exhaust stack. Construction commenced on Units B and C on July 19, 1976. Unit B was completed on March 9, 1984, Unit C on October 26, 1984.

Each reactor is loaded with around 136 tonnes of fuel; the reaction elements last approximately five years. Annually, roughly a fifth of them are switched out. Water is drawn from the river via a canal 1.4 km in length and evaporates in the cooling towers at a rate of 0.7 cubic meters per second. It is returned to the river through an underground pipe.

Like Unit A, Units B and C are boiling water reactors. In this type of reactor, the water flows around the fuel elements, boils, and the steam directly drives the turbines. Thus, in boiling water reactors, in contrast to pressurized water reactors, there is only a single, primary coolant loop. Each unit is loaded with 784 fuel elements. One fuel element contains approximately 174 kg uranium and consists of 100 (10 x 10) fuel rods. Units B and C together generate a total of approximately 210,000 kWh of electricity annually. Hence they are calculated to supply approximately 30% of Bavaria's electricity usage. Both reactors are designated Series 72 (for 1972, the year in which they were initially conceived).

Net electrical output is 1,300 megawatts per reactor. An increase in the output of Units B and C, from a gross electrical output of 1,344 megawatts each to 1,450 megawatts, was requested in September 1999 but has been "on ice" for years. On December 19, 2007, the Bayerisches Umweltministerium (Bavarian Ministry of the Environment) mandated an increase in performance of 160 thermal megawatts and in electricity generation of 52 megawatts. In addition, in recent years there has been a plan to convert both units to load management operation, in which the electrical output ("load") is managed. On weekends, at least, these reactors are often throttled back.

In 1995, plutonium-containing mixed oxide fuel elements (MOX fuel) were for the first time used on a large scale in boiling water reactors. Their increased radiation has been repeatedly criticized by environmental protection groups, which have registered around 40,000 protests. However, utilization of these fuel elements enables appreciably more effective use of available uranium through reprocessing. The operators must guarantee that the reactor can be safely shut down under all operating conditions. And at least once every operating period and upon every alteration to the fuel load in the core, a report on the so-called shut-down reactivity must be submitted, as required by German safety rule KTA 3104.

Measured emitted radioactivity in 2004 was 3 TBq airborne and 5 TBq waterborne.

The planned shutdown of the Gundremmingen B reactor has previously been scheduled for 2016, and of Gundremmingen C for 2017. Already at the end of 1994, the operators had announced agreements with the nuclear reprocessing plants at La Hague, France and Sellafield, England, and with that opted for long-term interim storage.

Interim storage of spent nuclear fuel

Since August 2004, an interim storage facility has been established on the grounds of the nuclear power plant for spent fuel elements with a heavy metal weight of 2,250 tonnes. It contains 192 storage spaces and was placed in operation in 2006. € 30 million have been budgeted for this. Construction of the building (104 m long, 38 m wide, and 18 m tall) was completed at the end of 2005. After interior fitting with electrical, heating, and ventilation equipment, installation of heavyweight hoists, and remaining exterior work, on August 25, 2006 the interim storage facility was opened and the first containers from the power plant moved in.

To minimize risk of radiation, the facility has two doors each weighing 50 tonnes and thick concrete walls, although at 85 cm they are thinner than in comparable storage facilities in North Germany (e.g. at Brokdorf 120 cm). At 55 cm, the concrete roof is likewise considerably weaker than the roofs of the interim storage facilities built in North Germany (e.g. Brokdorf 130 cm).

The power station operators had submitted a request to store up to 192 containers of spent nuclear fuel. With the assistance of environmental groups, neighboring residents lodged a legal complaint against the project. In a judgment dated January 2, 2006, the Bavarian Administrative Court rejected these complaints. An appeal was not accepted. The plaintiffs protested this decision with a complaint of non-admission to the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. On August 24, 2006, this motion was rejected. In addition to concern about catastrophic accidents in particular terrorist attacks, the opposition was motivated by fear that the interim storage facility might develop into an unplanned permanent storage facility, since even in 2005, despite many assurances, there still existed no permanent depository anywhere in the world for spent nuclear fuel, which requires safe containment for approximately a million years.

Weather Tower

Since 1978, approximately one kilometer east of the nuclear power station, at 48°30'47" N, 10°25'13" E, has been the location of a 174 m tall steel and concrete tower with instruments for monitoring climatic conditions, known as the Meteo-Turm or Weather Tower.

Incidents in Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant

In the early morning hours of Sunday January 6, 2008, Unit B of the Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Station was shut down as a precaution. The reason was an approximately 3% reduction in output by one of the low-pressure turbines; that corresponds to approximately 40 megawatts of output. The cause was a defective weld in a pipe, through which steam was reaching the condenser directly, without passing through the turbine rotors. To determine the cause of the drop in performance and repair the damage as well as to prevent any possible effects on the turbine, the unit was powered down. On January 8, the problem with the weld was corrected. The reduction in performance by the turbine had no safety implications for the assembly or the environment surrounding the plant. It was not subject to mandatory reporting. The reactor went back online on January 12.

During 2007, the oversight agency was informed of a total of nine incidents (5 in Unit B, 4 in Unit C). All were deemed "insignificant in terms of safety." Emissions of radioactive substances had in all cases remained under the permitted threshold, according to an annual statement to the press in 2008 by the technical supervisor, Dr. Helmut Bläsig.

Trivia

The previous abbreviated form of the nuclear power plant's name was KRB (for Kernkraftwerk RWE-Bayernwerk). Recently, however, the abbreviation KGG (for Kernkraftwerk Gundremmingen GmbH) has been used. The abbreviation KGB (for Kernkraftwerk Gundremmingen Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) was also used for a while, but did not come into common use because the former Soviet secret police is also abbreviated KGB.

Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant's partner power plant is the Russian Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant.


Gundremmingen Nuclear Power Plant
Country Germany
Locale Gundremmingen, district of Günzburg, Bavaria
Coordinates 48°30′53″N 10°24′8″E / 48.51472°N 10.40222°E / 48.51472; 10.40222 / 48.51472; 10.40222
Construction began 1962
Commission date April 12, 1967
Owner(s) 75% RWE
25% E.ON
Operator(s) Kernkraftwerk
Gundremmingen GmbH

Power generation information
Annual generation 20,629 GW·h
Net generation 403,092 GW·h

Robert E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant

The Robert E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, commonly known as Ginna. It is a nuclear power plant located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, in the town of Ontario, Wayne County, New York, approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of Rochester, New York.[1] It is a single unit Westinghouse 2-Loop pressurized water reactor, similar to those at Point Beach, Kewaunee, and Prairie Island. Ginna is one of the oldest nuclear power reactors still in operation in the United States, having gone into commercial operation in 1970.

Ginna Nuclear Power Plant is owned and operated by Constellation Energy Group, who purchased it from Rochester Gas and Electric in 2004.

The Ginna Nuclear Power Plant was the site of a minor nuclear accident when, on January 25, 1982, a small amount of radioactive steam leaked into the air after a steam-generator tube ruptured. The leak which lasted 93 minutes led to the declaration of a site emergency. The rupture was caused by a small pie-pan-shaped object left in the steam generator during an outage. This was not the first time a tube rupture had occurred at an American reactor but following on so closely behind the Three Mile Island accident caused considerable attention to be focused on the incident at the Ginna plant. In total, 485.3 curies of noble gas and 1.15 millicuries of iodine-131 were released to the environment.

In 1996 the original Westinghouse supplied steam generators were replaced by two brand new Babcock and Wilcox steam generators. This project enabled an uprating of Ginna's output several years later and was a major factor in the approval of the plant's operating license extension for 20 years beyond the original license.

Ginna Nuclear Power Plant
Country United States
Locale Ontario, New York
Coordinates 43°16′40″N 77°18′36″W / 43.27778°N 77.31°W / 43.27778; -77.31
Status Operational
Commission date June 1, 1970
Licence expiration September 18, 2029
Operator(s) Constellation Energy

Power generation information
Installed capacity 610 MW
Annual generation 4,930 GW·h

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was a pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant in Rainier, Oregon, United States, and the only commercial nuclear power plant to be built in Oregon. After sixteen years of service it was closed by its operator, Portland General Electric (PGE), almost twenty years before the end of its design lifetime. Decommissioning and demolition of the plant began in 1993 and was completed in 2006, except for the spent fuel pool containing highly radioactive waste such as the spent fuel rods still stored at the Trojan site.

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant represented more than 12% of the electrical generation capacity of Oregon. For comparison, more than 80% of Oregon's electricity came from hydropower from dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, with the rest mainly from fossil fuels.

Construction of Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

Construction of Trojan Nuclear Power Plant began February 1, 1970. First criticality was achieved on December 15, 1975 and grid connection on December 23, 1975. Commercial operation began on May 20, 1976 under a 35-year license to expire in 2011. The single 1130 megawatt unit at Trojan was then the largest pressurized water reactor built. It cost $450 million to build the plant.

Modifications

In 1978, the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was closed for nine months while modifications were made to improve its resistance to earthquakes. This followed the discovery both of major building construction errors and of the close proximity of a previously unknown faultline. The operators sued the builders, and an undisclosed out-of-court settlement was eventually reached.

The Trojan Nuclear Power Plant steam generators were designed to last the life of the plant, but it was only four years before premature cracking of the steam tubes was observed.

Decommissions process

In 1992, PGE spent $4.5 million to defeat ballot measures seeking to close Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. It was the most expensive ballot measure campaign in Oregon history until the tobacco industry spent $12 million in 2007 to defeat Measure 50. A week later the Trojan plant suffered another steam generator tube leak of radioactive water, and was shut down. It was announced that replacement of the steam generators would be necessary. In December 1992, documents were leaked from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission showing that staff scientists believed that Trojan might be unsafe to operate. In January 1993, chief plant engineer David Fancher, acting as spokesman for PGE, announced the company would not try to restart Trojan.

In 2005, the reactor vessel and other radioactive equipment were removed from the Trojan plant, encased in concrete foam, shrink-wrapped, and transported intact by barge along the Columbia River to Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, where it was buried in a 45-foot-deep (14 m) pit and covered with 6 inches (150 mm) of gravel, which made it the first commercial reactor to be moved and buried whole. The spent fuel is stored onsite in 34 dry casks, awaiting transport to the Yucca Mountain Repository.

The iconic 499-foot-tall (152 m) cooling tower, visible from Interstate 5 in Washington, was demolished via dynamite implosion at 7:00 a.m. on May 21, 2006. This event marked the first implosion of a cooling tower at a nuclear plant in the United States. Additional demolition work on the remaining structures was to continue through 2008. The central office building, and the reactor building were demolished by Northwest Demolition and Dismantling in 2008. Remaining are five buildings: two warehouses, a small building on the river side, a guard shack, and offices outside the secured facility. There is also extensive underground infrastructure still to be demolished. It is expected that demolition of the plant will cost as least as much as its construction.

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant
Locale Rainier, Oregon, U.S.
Coordinates 46°2′18″N 122°53′6″W / 46.03833°N 122.885°W / 46.03833; -122.885 / 46.03833; -122.885
Status Decommissioned
Construction began 1970
Commission date May 20, 1976
Decommission date 1992
Construction cost approximately $500,000,000
Operator(s) Portland General Electric
Architect(s) Bechtel

Power station information
Generation units General Electric

Power generation information
Installed capacity 1,130 MW

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

The Millstone Nuclear Power Plant is the only nuclear power generation site in Connecticut. It is located at a former quarry in Waterford. Of the three reactors built here, units two and three are still operating at a combined output rating of 2020 MWe.

The Millstone Nuclear Power Plant site covers about 500 acres (2 km²). The power generation complex was built by a consortium of utilities, using Niantic Bay (which is connected to Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean) as a source of coolant water.

Although located in Waterford, Millstone is most clearly seen from downtown Niantic. It is visible from the Niantic Boardwalk area and from the Niantic River Bridge, and is also visible to Amtrak customers on the NEC line which as it skirts Niantic Bay.

Millstone earned OSHA's top award for workplace safety in October 14, 2004, and earned the Top Industry Practice/ Framatone ANP Vendor Award for its work developing novel ultrasonic leak inspection techniques in March 2001.

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Units 2 and 3, both pressurized water reactors (one from Westinghouse and one from Combustion Engineering), were sold to Dominion by Northeast Utilities in 2000 and continue to operate.

On November 28, 2005, after a 22-month application and evaluation process, Millstone was granted a 20-year license extension to both units 2 and 3 by the NRC.

Licensing history & milestones

Unit 1

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 was a General Electric boiling water reactor, producing 660 MWe, shut down in November 1995 before being permanently closed in July 1998.

  • Construction Permit Issued: May 19, 1966
  • Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) Filed: November 1, 1968
  • Provisional Operating License Issued: October 7, 1970
  • Full Term Operating License Issued: October 31, 1986
  • Full Power License: October 7, 1970
  • Initial Criticality: October 26, 1970
  • Synchronized to the Grid: November 1970
  • Commercial Operation: December 28, 1970
  • 100% Power: January 6, 1971
  • Permanently Ceased Operations: July 21, 1998

Unit 2

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 is a Combustion Engineering plant built in the 1970s, and has a maximum power output of 2700 MWth (870 MWe). It has 2 steam generators, and 4 reactor cooling pumps (RCP). It is currently undergoing an upgrade to its safe shutdown system which already met NRC standards. During its refueling outage in October 2006, the operator installed a new pressurizer.

  • Construction Permit Issued: December 11, 1970
  • Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) Filed: August 15, 1972
  • Full Term Operating Licensing Issued: September 26, 1975
  • Full Power License: September 26, 1975
  • Initial Criticality: October 17, 1975
  • Commercial Operation: December 26, 1975
  • 100% Power: March 20, 1976
  • “Stretch Power”: June 25, 1979
  • Operating License Extension Requested: December 22, 1986
  • Operating License Extension Issued: January 12, 1988
  • Full Term Operating License Expires: December 11, 2010
  • Operating License Expires: July 31, 2015
  • Extended Operating License Expires: July 31, 2035

Unit 3

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 is a Westinghouse plant that started operating in 1986, and has a maximum power output of 3411 MWth (1150 MWe). Recently, the NRC approved a power uprate for Unit 3 that will increase its electrical output 7.006% to 3650 MWth (1230 MWe. The increase will take effect by the end of 2008.

  • Construction Permit Issued: August 9, 1974
  • Initial Criticality: January 23, 1986
  • Commercial Operation: April 23, 1986
  • Operating License Expires: November 25, 2025
  • Extended Operating License Expires: November 25, 2045

Events in Millstone nuclear power plant

On April 17, 2005, Millstone Nuclear Power Plant safely shut down without incident when a circuit board monitoring a steam pressure line short-circuited, which caused the board to malfunction and indicate an unsafe drop in pressure in the reactor's steam system, when in reality there was no drop in steam pressure. The cause was attributed to "tin whiskers". In response to this event, Millstone implemented a procedure to inspect for these whiskers at every refueling outage, or 18 months. David Lochbaum, a scientist affiliated with the Union of Concerned Scientists, while remaining critical of the processes leading to the discovery of the whiskers, praised Millstone for its handling of the situation.

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
Country United States
Locale Waterford, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°18′43″N 72°10′7″W / 41.31194°N 72.16861°W / 41.31194; -72.16861 / 41.31194; -72.16861
Status Operational
Commission date Unit 2: December 26, 1975
Unit 3: April 23, 1986
Licence expiration Unit 2: July 31, 2035
Unit 3: November 25, 2045
Construction cost Unit 2: $424 million
Unit 3: $3.77 billion
Operator(s) Dominion
Architect(s) Unit 2: Bechtel
Unit 3: Stone & Webster

Power generation information
Installed capacity Unit 2: 882 MW
Unit 3: 1,155
Annual generation Unit 2: 7,686 GWh
Unit 3: 8,699

Clinton Nuclear Power Plant

The Clinton Nuclear Power Plant is located near Clinton, Illinois, USA. The nuclear power station has a General Electric boiling water reactor on a 14,300 acres (57.9 km2) site with an adjacent 5,000 acres (20.2 km2) cooling reservoir, Clinton Lake. Due to inflation and cost overruns, Clinton's final construction cost exceeded $2.6 billion. The power station began service on April 24, 1987 and is currently capable of generating 1,043 MW.

After more than a decade of operation the plant's original owner, Illinois Power, deduced that it was not economical to own and operate only one nuclear generating station. They subsequently sold Clinton Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon Corporation for a more modest price of $40 million dollars, with the purchase including the fuel in the reactor vessel and responsibility of all the radioactive waste in the spent fuel storage pool. The reactor design is of the type called the Generation II reactor. Clinton Nuclear Power Plant is a BWR-6 with a Mark III containment structure. The present reactor operating license was issued April 17, 1987, and will expire September 29, 2026.

The Operator and Owner is the Exelon Corporation.

In September 2003, Exelon submitted an Early Site Permit to place a second reactor at the Clinton site — this was approved March 15, 2007. The Early Site Permit does not actually grant any type of license to begin building a second reactor, although it offers the operator an avenue to begin the approval process leading to construction and operation of an additional power reactor at the site. According to the ESP, the new plant design will be of the AP1000 type, although the ESP does not state what gross wattage has been selected.

Clinton Nuclear Power Plant
Country United States
Locale Clinton, Illinois
Coordinates 40°10′20″N 88°50′6″W / 40.17222°N 88.835°W / 40.17222; -88.835 / 40.17222; -88.835
Status Operational
Commission date April 24, 1987
Licence expiration September 29, 2026
Construction cost >$2.6 billion
Operator(s) Exelon Corporation
Architect(s) Sargent & Lundy

Reactor information
Reactors operational 1 x 1043 MW
Reactors planned 1 at least 1,100 MW
Reactor type(s) boiling water reactor
Reactor supplier(s) General Electric

Power generation information
Annual generation 9,250 GW·h

Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant

The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, more commonly known as Seabrook Station, is a nuclear power plant located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately 40 miles (64 km) north of Boston and 10 miles (16 km) south of Portsmouth. Two units (reactors) were planned, but the second unit was never completed due to construction delays, cost overruns and troubles obtaining financing. The construction permit for the plant was granted in 1976 and construction on Unit 1 was completed in 1986. Full power operation of Unit 1 began in 1990. Unit 2 has been canceled and most of its major components sold to other plants.

The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant was originally owned by more than 10 separate utility companies serving five New England states. In 2002, most sold their shares to FPL Energy (a subsidiary of FPL Group), later known as NextEra Energy Resources. NextEra Energy now owns 88.2% of Seabrook Station. The remaining portion is owned by municipal utilities in Massachusetts.

The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant is one of five nuclear generating facilities operated by FPL Group. The other four are St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant and Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station operated by sister company Florida Power & Light (a regulated utility), and the Duane Arnold Energy Center and Point Beach Nuclear Generating Station operated by NextEra.

In 2010, the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant applied to have its operating license extended from 2030 to 2050.

The Wackenhut Corporation provides plant security to three of the four sites. Seabrook, St. Lucie, and Turkey Point experienced security related problems between 2004 and 2006. At Seabrook, US Congressmen and the NRC investigated reports that a newly installed security fence had not worked properly since its installation six months earlier, in addition to reports of overworked security officers.

A second reactor was proposed in 1972 and canceled in 1988.

During the 2008 presidential election, Republican nominee John McCain mentioned the possibility of building the once-planned second reactor at Seabrook. The idea drew cautious support from some officials, but would be difficult due to financial and regulatory reasons.

Technical details of Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant

  • Generation: 1,296 MWe at full power (since uprate)
  • One Westinghouse pressurized water reactor
  • Cooled by water from Atlantic Ocean
Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant
Locale Seabrook, New Hampshire
Coordinates 42°53′56″N 70°51′03″W / 42.89889°N 70.85083°W / 42.89889; -70.85083 / 42.89889; -70.85083
Status Operational
Construction began United Engineers and Constructors
Commission date March 15, 1990
Licence expiration October 17, 2026
Operator(s) NextEra Energy Resources

Reactor information
Reactor type(s) PWR
Reactor supplier(s) Westinghouse

Power station information
Generation units 1 - 22kV GE

Power generation information
Installed capacity 1244 MW
Annual generation 10,763 GW·h


Kori Nuclear Power Plant

The Kori Nuclear Power Plant is a South Korean nuclear power plant located in Gori, a suburban village in Busan. It is owned and operated by KEPCO. The first reactor began commercial operation in 1978.

An expansion of the Kori Nuclear Power Plant begun in 2006 added four new Korean-sourced reactors, the so-called Shin Kori reactors. The first pair of Shin Kori reactors are of the OPR-1000 design, while the second two are the APR-1400 design. By November 2010 the first was online and the rest undergoing trials or construction. Two further APR-1400 reactors are in planning.

Breakdown by Reactor

So far, all reactors on site are Pressurized water reactors by definition.

Attribute Kori 1 Kori 2 Kori 3 Kori 4 Shin Kori 1 Shin Kori 2 Shin Kori 3 Shin Kori 4
Net Electric Output 556 MWe 605 MWe 895 MWe 895 MWe 960 MWe (960) MWe (1340) MWe (1340) MWe
First Criticality 06/1977 04/1983 01/1985 10/1985 06/2010 - - -
Commercial Start 04/1978 07/1983 09/1985 04/1986 12/2010 - - -
Reactor Supplier Westinghouse Westinghouse Westinghouse Westinghouse KHNP/KEPCO KHNP/KEPCO KHNP/KEPCO KHNP/KEPCO
NSSS supplier General Electric General Electric General Electric General Electric Doosan Doosan Doosan Doosan
Architecture Gilbert Gilbert Bechtel Bechtel KOPEC KOPEC KOPEC KOPEC
Construction Westinghouse Westinghouse Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai