Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Station

Quad Cities Generating Station
Location of Quad Cities Generating Station in Illinois
Country	United States
Location	Cordova Township, Rock Island County, near Cordova, Illinois
Coordinates
Status	Operational
Commission date	Unit 1: February 18, 1973 Unit 2: March 10, 1973
Construction cost	$250 million
Operator(s)	Exelon
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	boiling water reactor
Reactor supplier	General Electric
Power generation
Units operational	1,871 MW
Annual generation	14,457 GWh
Website www.exeloncorp.com

Quad Cities Generating Station is a two-unit nuclear power plant located near Cordova, Illinois, USA on the Mississippi River. The two General Electric boiling water reactors give the plant a total electric capacity of approximately 1,871 MW. It was named for the nearby cities of Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa, East Moline, Illinois, and Bettendorf, Iowa — known as the Quad Cities.

The Quad Cities plant is owned and operated by Exelon Corporation. In 2004, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a 20-year license extension for both reactors at this plant. Citing the plant's ongoing string of financial losses, Exelon has considered shutting down the facility by 2018.

Extended power uprate

During an extended power uprate test on March 5, 2002 (designed to extend the power efficiency of existing BWR reactors), Quad Cities Unit 2 began to experience vibrations in a steam line. On March 29 the plant was manually shut down due to high vibrations causing leaks in the main turbine control system. Unit 2 was restarted on April 2, but vibration broke a main steam pipe drain line. The line was repaired and the restart resumed, but by June 7 the main steam lines were showing unexplained aberrations. The plant was again taken offline for repairs on July 11, and the problem was traced to a hole in the steam dryer. The steam dryer was repaired and Unit 2 was restarted on July 21, 2002. The incident did not result in any increased probability of an accident. The NRC inspected all repairs and the extended power uprate was completed successfully.

Unit 1
Nuclear system supplied by General Electric Company (U.S.)
Capacity Net MW(e)	Generation in 2003 Megawatt-hours	Capacity Factor	Type	On-line Date	License Expiration Date
934	5,709,520	90.6%	BWR-3	Dec. 14, 1972	Dec. 14, 2032
Unit 2
Nuclear system supplied by General Electric Company (U.S.)
Capacity Net MW(e)	Generation in 2003 Megawatt-hours	Capacity Factor	Type	On-line Date	License Expiration Date
937	6,956,073	92.7%	BWR-3	Dec. 14, 1972	Dec. 14, 2032

2015 net generation was 15.5 million MWh, and the capacity factor was 95.0%. This equates to roughly 1.2 million homes.

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.

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Quad Cities was 34,350, a decrease of 0.5 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 655,207, a decrease of 0.3 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Moline (19 miles to city center).

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 Quad Cities was 1 in 37,037, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

External links

• Exelon Corporation Quad Cities Plant Page
• NukeWorker