Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
| Millstone Nuclear Power Plant | |
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| File:HD.6D.129 (10821944423).jpg
Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
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 Location of Millstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Waterford, Connecticut |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | Unit 2: December 26, 1975 Unit 3: April 23, 1986 |
| Construction cost | Unit 2: $424 million Unit 3: $3.77 billion |
| Operator(s) | Dominion Resources |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | PWR |
| Reactor supplier | Unit 2: Combustion Engineering Unit 3:Westinghouse |
| Cooling source | Long Island Sound |
| Cooling towers | no |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | Unit 2: 882 MW Unit 3: 1,155 MW |
| Nameplate capacity | 2,037 MW |
| Annual generation | 16,385 GWh |
| Website Millstone |
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The Millstone Nuclear Power Station is the only nuclear power generation site in Connecticut and the only multi unit nuclear plant in New England. It is located at a former quarry (from which it takes its name) in Waterford. Of the three reactors built here, units two and three are still operating at a combined output rating of 2020 MWe. In terms of generating capacity, Millstone is the largest electrical generating facility in New England, and the plant contains the second (unit 3) and third (unit 2) largest individual generating units on the New England electrical grid.
Contents
Background
The Millstone 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 passengers on Amtrak trains passing through Waterford on the Northeast Corridor.
Millstone earned OSHA's top award for workplace safety on October 14, 2004,[1] and earned the Top Industry Practice/ Framatone ANP Vendor Award for its work developing novel ultrasonic leak inspection techniques in March 2001.[2]
Millstone 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.[3]
Licensing history and milestones
Unit 1
Millstone 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
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a safety investigation relating to refueling procedures, based on information provided by George Galatis, a senior nuclear engineer, 1995.[4]
- Leaking valve forced shutdown multiple equipment failures detected: February 20, 1996
- Permanently Ceased Operations: July 21, 1998
Unit 2
Millstone 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 3 is a Westinghouse plant that started operating in 1986, and has a maximum power output of 3411 MWth (1150 MWe). In the summer of 2008, the NRC approved a power uprate for Unit 3 that increased its electrical output 7.006% to 3650 MWth (1230 MWe). The increase took effect by the end of 2008.[5]
- 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
On February 26, 1996, a leaking valve forced the shutdown of units 1 and 2. Multiple equipment failures were found.
On April 17, 2005, Millstone 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 nuclear engineer 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.[6]
In September, 2009, unit 2 shut down when an electrical storm caused power fluctuations. When workers tried to restart the unit, they discovered a small leak in the reactor coolant pump.[7]
12/21/2009 Millstone Unit 3 Reactor Trip and Shutdown Greater Than 72 Hours.
07/27/2009 Millstone Unit 2 Reactor Trip and Shutdown Greater Than 72 Hours
08/09/2013 Millstone Unit 3 Reactor Trip and Shutdown due to a malfunction
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.[8]
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Millstone was 123,482, an increase of 29.5 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 2,996,756, an increase of 9.5 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Hartford (41 miles to city center).[9]
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 Millstone was Reactor 2: 1 in 90,909; Reactor 3: 1 in 66,667, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[10][11]
References
- ↑ Millstone Receives OSHA Recognition for Workplace Safety PR Newswire, 14-OCT-04
- ↑ Sarver and Jordan: Maintenance at Millstone Nuclear News, October 2003
- ↑ NRC Renews Millstone Nuclear Power Station Operating Licenses For An Additional 20 Years
- ↑ NRC Failure to Adequately Regulate - Millsone Unit 1, 1995
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Reactor Shutdown: Dominion Learns Big Lesson From A Tiny ‘tin Whisker'
- ↑ http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Millstone-2-operating-again-after-shutdown-6891.php#ixzz1GtOgmyQM
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Energy infrastructure completed in 1970
- Energy infrastructure completed in 1975
- Energy infrastructure completed in 1986
- Nuclear power plants in Connecticut
- Buildings and structures in New London County, Connecticut
- Buildings and structures in Waterford, Connecticut
- Nuclear power stations using pressurized water reactors
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