| Callaway Plant | |
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Auxvasse Township, Callaway County, near Steedman, Missouri |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | December 19, 1984 |
| Licence expiration | October 18, 2024 |
| Operator(s) | Ameren Missouri |
| Architect(s) | Bechtel Corporation |
| Reactor information | |
| Reactors operational | 1 x 1,190 MW |
| Reactors planned | 1 x 1,600 MW |
| Reactor type(s) | pressurized water reactor |
| Reactor supplier(s) | Westinghouse (Unit 1) |
| Power station information | |
| Generation units | 1 General Electric |
| Power generation information | |
| Annual generation | 9,372 GW·h |
| Website Callaway Plant website |
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| As of 2008-11-14 | |
The Callaway Plant is a nuclear power plant located on a 5,228-acre (21 km²) site in Callaway County, Missouri, near Fulton, Missouri. It began operating on December 19, 1984. The plant, which is the state's only commercial nuclear unit, has one 1,190-megawatt Westinghouse four-loop pressurized water reactor and a General Electric turbine-generator. It is owned by the Ameren Corporation and operated by Ameren Missouri.
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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.[1]
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Callaway was 10,092, an increase of 3.8 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 546,292, an increase of 15.0 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Fulton (11 miles to city center), Jefferson City (26 miles to city center), Columbia (32 miles to city center).[2]
According to Ameren, Callaway produces about 19 percent of Ameren Missouri's power.[3] In 2001, Callaway set a plant record for capacity utilization, producing 101.1 percent of its rated electrical output, ranking it among the world's top reactors, according to the Energy Information Administration.[4] The plant produces 1,190 megawatts of net power,[5] and has run continuously for over 500 days between refuelings. Callaway is one of 26 nuclear power plants in the United States to achieve a continuous run of over 500 days.
On November 19, 2005, its workers completed the replacement of all four steam generators in 63 days, 13 hours, setting a world record for a four-loop plant.[6]
The cooling tower at Callaway is 553 feet tall, 77 feet shorter than the St Louis Gateway Arch. It is 430 feet wide at the base, and is constructed from reinforced concrete. It cools approximately 585,000 gallons of water per minute when the plant is operating at full capacity, and about 15,000 gallons of water are lost out the top from evaporation.[7] Another 5,000 gallons of water are sent to the Missouri River as "blowdown" to flush solids from the cooling tower basin. All water lost through evaporation or blowdown is replaced with water from the river, located five miles from the plant.[8] The temperature of the water going into the cooling tower is 125° Fahrenheit, and the tower cools it to 95°.
On July 28, 2008, Ameren Missouri submitted an application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), seeking a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for a potential second unit. According to Thomas R. Voss, president and chief executive officer of Ameren Missouri, "Given projections for a nearly 30 percent increase in demand for power in Missouri in the next two decades, we believe we will need to build a large generating plant to be on line in the 2018–2020 timeframe."[3] Ameren Missouri proposed building a 1,600-MW Areva Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR).[9]
In April 2009, the proposal was cancelled. A key stumbling block was a law barring utilities from charging customers the costs of a new power plant before it starts producing electricity. The new nuclear plant would have cost at least $6 billion.[10][11]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Callaway was 1 in 500,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[12][13] This was the lowest probability of any U.S. reactor.