| Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant | |
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Baxley, Georgia |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | Unit 1: December 31, 1975 Unit 2: September 5, 1979 |
| Licence expiration | Unit 1: August 6, 2034 Unit 2: July 13, 2038 |
| Construction cost | $994 million |
| Operator(s) | Southern Nuclear |
| Architect(s) | Bechtel |
| Reactor information | |
| Reactors operational | 2 x 924 MW |
| Reactor type(s) | boiling water reactor |
| Reactor supplier(s) | General Electric |
| Power generation information | |
| Installed capacity | 1,848 MW |
| Website www.southerncompany.com/southernnuclear/hatch.aspx |
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| As of 2008-11-15 | |
The Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant is near Baxley, Georgia, on a 2,244-acre (9 km²) site. It has two General Electric boiling water reactors with a total capacity of 1,726 megawatts. Previously, the reactors had a combined capacity listing of 1,848 MW. Unit 1 went online in 1974 and was followed by Unit 2 in 1978. The plant was named for Edwin I. Hatch, president of Georgia Power from 1963 to 1975, and chairman from 1975 to 1978.
In 2002, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) extended the operating licenses for both reactors for an additional twenty years.
Contents |
The Hatch plant is operated by Southern Nuclear Operating Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company. Hatch's owners are:
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 Hatch was 11,061, an increase of 6.7 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 424,741, an increase of 12.0 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Vidalia (19 miles to city center).[2]
Spent nuclear fuel is stored on-site in concrete casks. According to the National Academy of Sciences (National Research Council, Radiation Dose Reconstruction for Epidemiologic Uses, National Academy of Sciences Press. P.105), Chernobyl released about 1.89 million curies of Cs-137.
The Hatch Plant, a BWR, near Baxley GA is estimated by DOE, as of this year, to have generated 1,446 metric tons of spent fuel containing about 179 million curies. About 56 percent of the spent fuel inventory at Hatch is Cs-137. So the Hatch spent fuel contains approximately 100 million curies of Cs-137—about 52 times the amount released at Chernobyl.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Hatch was 1 in 454,545, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[3][4]