South Texas Nuclear Generating Station
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| Utility | Texas Genco LLC 44% City of San Antonio 40% City of Austin 16% |
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| Reactor supplier | Pressurized water reactor | |
| Reactor type | Westinghouse | |
| Steam generators | Westinghouse | |
| Capacity | 2,500 megawatts | |
| Architect | Start: Brown & Root Finish: Bechtel Corp. |
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| Construction | Start: Brown & Root Finish: Ebasco Constructors, Inc. |
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| Cost | $5,500,000,000 | |
| Commercial operation | Unit 1: August 25, 1988 Unit 2: June 19, 1989 |
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| License expiration | August 20, 2027 | |
The South Texas Nuclear Generating Station, also known as the South Texas Project (STP), is a nuclear power station located at coordinates 28.800 -96.052, southwest of Bay City, Texas, United States. The STP occupies a 12,200 acre (49 km²) site on the Colorado River about 90 miles (145 km) southwest of Houston. The STP was the first nuclear power plant in Texas. In 1996, the two South Texas units, both Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, were two of the top 20 electricity generating nuclear units worldwide.
STP is unique in its design of the safety systems for the reactors. Each unit has three, rather than the customary two, fully independent emergency core cooling systems and associated support systems. However the addition of the third safety train was not fully recognized and credited by nuclear safety regulations during the plant licensing process. The third ECCS system provides significant real risk reduction, and the utility undertook efforts to gain regulatory recognition of these features. These efforts led in part to the plants engineering staff becoming early industry leaders in analytical risk modeling and real-time management of risk during operations and maintenance activities.
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[edit] History
On December 6, 1971, Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P), the City of Austin, the City of San Antonio, and the Central Power and Light Co. (CPL) initiated a feasibility study of constructing a jointly-owned nuclear plant. The initial cost estimate for the plant was $974 million.
By mid-1973, HL&P and CPL had chosen Bay City as the site for the project and San Antonio had signed on as a partner in the project. Brown and Root was selected as the architect and construction company. In November, voters in Austin approved their city's participation and the city signed onto the project on December 1. Austin would have a several more referendums through the years on whether to stay in the project or not.
An application for plant construction permits was submitted to the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)) in May, 1974 and the NRC issued the permits on December 22, 1975. Construction started in 1976.
By 1981, the South Texas Project was four years behind schedule and had substantial cost overruns. Brown and Root revised their completion schedule to June, 1989 and the cost estimate to $4.4-$4.8 billion. Brown and Root was relieved as architect in September and Bechtel Corporation contracted to replace them. Less then two months later, Brown and Root withdrew as the construction contractor and Ebasco Constructors was hired to replace them in February, 1982.
Austin voters authorized the City Council on November 3, 1981 to sell the city's 16 percent interest in the STP. No buyers were found.
Unit 1 reached initial criticality on March 8, 1988 and went into commercial operation on August 25. Unit 2 reached initial criticality on March 12, 1989 and went into commercial operation on June 19.
In February, 1993, both units had to be taken offline to resolve problems with the steam-driven auxiliary feedwater pumps. They were not back in service until March (Unit 1) and May (Unit 2) of 1994.
[edit] Lawsuits
The STP owners sued Brown and Root for breach of contract on December 26, 1981. Brown and Root settled on May 30, 1985, agreeing to pay the STP owners $750 million.
On January 6, 1983, the City of Austin filed a lawsuit against HL&P for mismanagement of the project and seeking release from the STP Participation Agreement. The city filed another lawsuit on February 22, 1994 to recover fuel costs associated with the year-long outage at STP in 1993 and 1994. HL&P and Austin reached an out-of-court settlement on May 1, 1996 in which Austin would drop all litigation against HL&P, if HL&P would form a separate operating company to run the STP.
[edit] Proposed expansion
On June 19, 2006 NRG Energy filed a Letter Of Intent with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two 1358-MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactors at the South Texas Project site. [1]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- "Milestones". South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company. Retrieved Jul. 14, 2005.
- "CenterPoint Energy Historical Timeline". CenterPoint Energy. Retrieved Jul. 14, 2005.
