Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant
| Crystal River Nuclear Plant | |
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 The power plant complex of Crystal River, on the right of the cooling towers is the nuclear reactor (Unit 3) |
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Crystal River, Florida |
| Coordinates | 28°57.45′N 82°41.90′W / 28.9575°N 82.6983°WCoordinates: 28°57.45′N 82°41.90′W / 28.9575°N 82.6983°W |
| Status | Under repair |
| Commission date | March 13, 1977 |
| Licence expiration | December 3, 2016 |
| Construction cost | $400 million |
| Operator(s) | Progress Energy Inc |
| Architect(s) | Gilbert Associates |
| Reactor information | |
| Reactor type(s) | Pressurized water reactor (PWR) |
| Reactor supplier(s) | Babcock and Wilcox |
| Website www.progress-energy.com/.../crystalriver.asp |
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| As of January 2012 | |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Crystal River 3 Nuclear Generating Station |
The Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant, also simply called the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, is a nuclear power plant located in Crystal River, Florida. The power plant is the third plant built (hence its name) as part of the 4,700 acre (19 km²) Crystal River Energy Complex which contains a single pressurized water reactor, while sharing the site with four fossil fuel power plants.
The Crystal River reactor normally produces 860 MWe, but it has been offline since September 2009 when a refuelling and 20% uprate outage began. During the upgrade, workers discovered a gap in the concrete containment dome.[1] The NRC investigated and found that the gap was caused by workers applying more pressure to the concrete than it could handle while cutting a hole through which to replace the steam generators.[2] (The building did not have a door large enough to get the generators through). The plant had originally been due to restart in April 2011 following the uprate, but in June 2011 Progress Energy said that it did not expect it to restart until 2014. Repair costs were estimated to be between $900 million and $1.3 billion.[3]
Crystal River was originally owned by Florida Progress Corporation (and operated by its subsidiary, Florida Power Corporation) but, in 2000, it was bought by Carolina Power & Light to form the new company, Progress Energy, which currently operates the plant. Progress Energy owned 91.8% of the plant; the remainder is owned by nine municipal utilities.
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[edit] Outage and repairs
Crystal River is a pressurized water reactor that normally produces 860 MWe, but it has been offline since September 2009 when a refuelling and 20% uprate outage began. A hole was made in the plant's reinforced steel containment structure for the replacement of its steam generators, but engineers noticed this had caused part of the concrete to delaminate. This was repaired, and the concrete re-tensioned, but the same problem was found in other areas. The plant had originally been due to restart in April 2011 following the uprate, but in June 2011 Progress Energy said that it did not expect it to restart until 2014. Preliminary cost estimates for the repairs was put at between $900 million and $1.3 billion.[4]
[edit] Surrounding population
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.[5]
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Crystal River was 20,695, an increase of 50.9 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 1,046,741, an increase of 32.4 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Ocala, (38 miles to city center) and Spring Hill (34 miles to city center).[6]
[edit] Seismic risk
In September 10th, 2006 a magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred 300 miles southwest of the nuclear plant, no damage occurred to the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant from the rare quake. The odds of such a quake happening again in the near-term around Florida are low.[7]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Crystal River was 1 in 45,455, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[8][9]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Matthew L. Wald (November 23, 2009). "A Nuclear Reactor Shows Its Age". New York Times. http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/a-nuclear-reactor-shows-its-age/.
- ^ Donovan, Travis (03-18-11). "U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Had 14 'Near-Miss' Problems In 2010: UCS Report". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/us-nuclear-power-near-misses-2010_n_837176.html#slide_image.
- ^ "Progress analysing Crystal River repair proposals". Wprld Nuclear News. 11 January 2012. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Progress_analysing_Crystal_River_repair_proposals-1101124.html.
- ^ "Progress analysing Crystal River repair proposals". Wprld Nuclear News. 11 January 2012. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Progress_analysing_Crystal_River_repair_proposals-1101124.html.
- ^ http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/emerg-plan-prep-nuc-power-bg.html
- ^ Bill Dedman, Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors, msnbc.com, April 14, 2011 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42555888/ns/us_news-life/ Accessed May 1, 2011.
- ^ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/florida/history.php
- ^ Bill Dedman, "What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk," msnbc.com, March 17, 2011 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42103936/ Accessed April 19, 2011.
- ^ http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/quake%20nrc%20risk%20estimates.pdf
[edit] External links
- "Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant, Florida". Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). August 29, 2008. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/crystal.html. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
- "Crystal River 3 Pressurized Water Reactor". Operating Nuclear Power Reactors. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). February 14, 2008. http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/cr3.html. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
- NukeWorker
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View of Crystal River Fossil Units 4 & 5 and their cooling towers at the Crystal River Energy Complex
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Sign at the entrance of the nuclear power and fossil generation plants
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Crystal River Units 4 & 5 coal power plants near the nuclear plant
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