Perry Nuclear Power Plant | |
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Perry as seen from Headlands Park, Ohio |
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Country | United States |
Location | North Perry, Ohio |
Coordinates | |
Status | Operational |
Commission date | November 18, 1987 |
Licence expiration | March 18, 2026 |
Construction cost | $6 billion |
Owner(s) | FirstEnergy |
Operator(s) | FirstEnergy Nuclear |
Architect(s) | Gilbert Associates |
Reactor information | |
Reactors operational | 1 x 1231 MW |
Reactors cancelled | 1 x 1231 MW |
Reactor type(s) | boiling water reactor |
Reactor supplier(s) | General Electric |
Power generation information | |
Annual generation | 8,058 GW·h |
As of 2008-11-21 |
The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is located on a 1,100-acre (450 ha) site on Lake Erie, 40 miles (65 km) northeast of Cleveland in North Perry, Ohio, USA. The nuclear power plant is owned by First Energy Nuclear Operating Corporation.
Perry was the 100th power reactor licensed in the United States.
The reactor is a General Electric BWR-6 boiling water reactor design, with a Mark III containment design. The original core power level of 3,579 megawatts thermal was increased to 3,758 megawatts thermal in 2000, making Perry one of the largest BWRs in the United States.
Built at a cost of $6 billion, Perry-1 is one of the most expensive power plants ever constructed.
Perry was originally designed as a two-unit installation, but construction on Unit 2 was suspended in 1985 and formally cancelled in 1994. At the time of cancellation, all of the major buildings and structures for the second unit were completed, including the 500-foot-tall (150 m) cooling tower. It is possible that a second unit could be constructed on the site, but current economical and regulatory conditions are not conducive to doing so (in addition to back taxes that would be due to the "abandon in place" designations on many objects in Unit 2). At any rate, the second unit would have to be re-built from the ground up to accommodate the newer reactor design that would almost certainly be installed.
On March 28, 2010, there was a fire in a lubrication system for one of the water pumps that feeds water for generation of steam. Reactor power was reduced to 70% as a safety precaution, and the fire was extinguished in less than three hours. Two plant fire brigade personnel were brought to a local hospital for "heat stress" following the fire. No customers lost power during this event.
In addition to Perry, FirstEnergy also owns and operates the Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley nuclear plants.
Unit 1 | Unit 2 | |
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Reactor Type | BWR-6 | BWR-6 |
Reactor Manufacturer | General Electric | General Electric |
Turbine Manufacturer | General Electric | General Electric |
Thermal Power | 3,758 megawatts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Electrical Output | 1,260 megawatts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Transmission System Connection | 345,000 volts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Construction Permit Issued | May 3, 1977 | May 3, 1977 (construction suspended in 1985) |
Initial Criticality | June 1986 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
First Electrical Generation | November 13, 1986 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Operational Date | November 18, 1987 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Expiration of Original License | March 18, 2026 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Contents |
The reactor is owned and operated by FirstEnergy. Four of its subsidiaries each own a share in the plant:
Company | Percentage | Notes |
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Cleveland Electric Illuminating | 44.9% | |
Ohio Edison | 30% | |
Pennsylvania Power | 5.2% | Ohio Edison subsidiary |
Toledo Edison | 19.9% |
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 Perry was 83,410, an increase of 8.0 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 2,281,531, a decrease of 3.0 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Cleveland (36 miles to city center). Canadian population is not included in these figures.[2]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Perry was 1 in 47,619, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[3][4]