Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station

Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station
Aerial photograph of the power plant
Country United States
Location Shippingport, Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°37′24″N 80°25′50″W / 40.62333°N 80.43056°W / 40.62333; -80.43056Coordinates: 40°37′24″N 80°25′50″W / 40.62333°N 80.43056°W / 40.62333; -80.43056
Status Operational
Construction began Unit 1: June 26, 1970
Unit 2: May 3, 1974
Commission date Unit 1: October 1, 1976
Unit 2: November 17, 1987
Construction cost $8.520 billion (2007 USD)[1]
Owner(s) Unit 1: PPL Corporation
Unit 2: Ohio Edison (FirstEnergy)
Operator(s) FirstEnergy Nuclear
Nuclear power station
Reactor type PWR
Reactor supplier Westinghouse
Cooling source Ohio River
Cooling towers 2 × Natural Draft
Power generation
Units operational 1 × 921 MW
1 × 905 MW
Make and model WH 3-loop (DRYSUB)
Thermal capacity 2 × 2900 MWth
Nameplate capacity 1826 MW
Capacity factor 95.73% (2017)
80.25% (lifetime)
Annual net output 15,312 GWh (2017)
Website
Beaver Valley

Beaver Valley Power Station is a nuclear power plant covering 1,000 acres (400 ha) near Shippingport, Pennsylvania, United States, 34 miles (55 km) roughly northwest of Pittsburgh. The Beaver Valley plant is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Corporation.

This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.

While the Shippingport Reactor has been decommissioned, Beaver Valley Units 1 and 2 are still licensed and in operation.

FirstEnergy announced that Beaver Valley is expected to close in 2021 without legislative relief or sale to another utility company.[2]

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.[3]

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Beaver Valley was 114,514, a decrease of 6.6 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 3,140,766, a decrease of 3.7 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Pittsburgh (27 miles upwind of city center).[4]

Seismic risk

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Beaver Valley was Reactor 1: 1 in 20,833; Reactor 2: 1 in 45,455, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[5][6]

Fessenheim

Beaver Valley 1 was used as the reference design for the French nuclear plant at Fessenheim.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Gough, Paul (March 28, 2018). "FirstEnergy could deactivate Beaver Valley Nuclear Operating Station". BizJournal. Pittsburgh.
  3. ↑ https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/emerg-plan-prep-nuc-power-bg.html
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/quake%20nrc%20risk%20estimates.pdf
  7. ↑ Thèse, publiée sur internet, de FOASSO Cyrille (Université Lumière Lyon2 - 2003) "Histoire de la sûreté de l'énergie nucléaire civile en France (1945-2000)" Le concept de centrale de référence : assurer les conditions d'un transfert de technologie optimum - "Dans cet apprentissage de la technologie des réacteurs à eau légère, EDF s'appuie sur le concept dit de «centrale de référence», adopté pour suppléer à son manque de connaissances en profondeur de ce type de réacteurs. Le concept de centrale de référence marque une étape fondamentale dans l'opération de transfert de technologie depuis les Etats-Unis vers la France." "pour Fessenheim c'est la centrale de Beaver Valley qui est choisie comme référence"
  • "Pennsylvania Nuclear Profile". Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). 2010. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  • "Beaver Valley Power Station". Operating Nuclear Power Reactors. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). April 1, 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  • Media related to Beaver Valley Power Station at Wikimedia Commons
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