South Texas Nuclear Generating Station
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| South Texas Nuclear Generating Station | |
 |
|
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Location | Near Bay City, Texas |
| Operator | NRG Energy 44% City of San Antonio 40% City of Austin 16% |
| Built | 1976 |
| Start of commercial operation | Unit 1: August 25, 1988 Unit 2: June 19, 1989 |
| Reactors | |
| Reactor supplier | Westinghouse |
| Reactor type | Pressurized water reactor |
| Reactors active | 2 (2,500 MW) |
| Reactors planned | 2 (2,716 MW) |
| Power | |
| Capacity | MW |
| Generators | Westinghouse |
| Other details | |
| Architect | Start: Brown & Root Finish: Bechtel Corp. |
| Cost | $5,500,000,000 |
| Constructors | Start: Brown & Root Finish: Ebasco Constructors, Inc. |
| License expires | August 20, 2027 |
| NRC region | 4 |
| NRC Region Four (West) |
|---|
| Arizona |
| Palo Verde |
| Arkansas |
| Arkansas 1 |
| California |
| Diablo Canyon San Onofre |
| Kansas |
| Wolf Creek |
| Louisiana |
| River Bend Waterford |
| Mississippi |
| Grand Gulf |
| Missouri |
| Callaway |
| Nebraska |
| Cooper Fort Calhoun |
| Texas |
| Comanche Peak South Texas |
| Washington |
| Columbia |
|
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The South Texas Nuclear Generating Station, also known as the South Texas Project (STP), is a nuclear power station 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. On November 17, 1973 voters in Austin narrowly approved their city's participation[1] and the city signed onto the project on December 1. Austin held several more referendums through the years on whether to stay in the project or not.[2][3][4]
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 at December 22, 1975[5]
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 than 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.[6] 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] Future 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. [7]
On September 24, 2007, NRG Energy filed a full application with the NRC to build two GE ABWR's (Advanced Boiling Water Reactors) at the South Texas Project site. [8] As of its filing, this application was the first full application to be submitted to the NRC since the year 1979. It is the first of what the NRC predicts to be 32 reactor applications to be filed from now until 2009. This proposed expansion of the South Texas Project will generate an additional 2,700 MW of electrical generating capacity, which will ultimately double the capacity of the current site. [9]
[edit] External links
- South Texas Nuclear Generating Station is at coordinates Coordinates:
[edit] References
- ^ "General Municipal Election: November 17, 1973" City of Austin
- ^ "General Municipal Election: August 14, 1976" City of Austin
- ^ "General Municipal Election: January 20, 1979" City of Austin
- ^ "General Municipal Election: April 7, 1979" City of Austin
- ^ Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA: South Texas
- ^ "General Municipal Election: November 3, 1981" City of Austin
- ^ "NRG announces new nuclear build programme" Nuclear Engineering International
- ^ "Leading America" Nuclear Engineering International
- ^ "NRG Files First Full Application for U.S. Reactor" Bloomberg.com
- "Milestones". South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company. Retrieved Jul. 14, 2005.
- "CenterPoint Energy Historical Timeline". CenterPoint Energy. Retrieved Jul. 14, 2005.
