Nuclear icon

I visited decommissioned Fermi Unit 1 yesterday, the early sodium cooled breeder reactor named for Enrico Fermi, located near Detroit. The plant has been largely dismantled, and some "souvenirs" saved for display at a display at the nearby Monroe County Community College.

The photo shows the plant's state today. Below are a couple postcards prior to the plant's construction - an artist's conception with a portrait of Enrico Fermi and a photo of the visitors' center for the plant. 

This last card shows the completed plant, which achieved criticality in 1963 and ceased operation in 1972, and promotes Detroit as a "leader in progress" with reference to the automotive and nuclear industries:

Fermi Unit 2, a Mark I GE BWR, has operated since the late 1980s. DTE Electric received an NRC license for a potential unit 3 earlier this year using the GE Hitachi ESBWR design. The company has deferred a decision as to when it might proceed with Unit 3, but if it does the remaining structures of Unit 1 will be dismantled and removed to make way for the new unit's footprint at the site.

Hot day In South Texas

I visited the site on a hot July day. This is a huge site and may see two more units in years to come.

Zion in decommissioning

I visited Zion Nuclear Power Plant, 50 miles or so north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. The plant was shuttered in 1998.

Containment door open to one of the units. Reactor vessels are being sectioned for shipment and disposal.

Turbines being salvaged for some parts that can be used as replacement stock at other plants or recycled (because they are non-radioactive). 

Another view of the turbine hall.

The control room. Only a few circuits and annunciators remain operable for in-service systems. Spent fuel has been offloaded from the fuel pool to dry cask storage on-site.

Carbon-free energy

Visited Doel NPP in Belgium in May and took this shot of an old windmill in front of  the cooling towers used for Doel 3 & 4. The town of Doel adjacent to the plant is largely abandoned due to the expansion of the port of Antwerp. 

Gingerbread Nuke

A colleague passed along this photo of the "Pfefferkuchen Nuclear Plant" on display in one of the NRC offices. A new small modular reactor design perhaps?

Happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas and a happy 2015!

Nuclear Power in the Old Dominion

I'm headed back to the US for home leave soon and will spend some time visiting family in Virginia, so i thought a post on Virginia's plants would be appropriate. Virginia Electric Power Company licensed plants at two sites, Surry on the south bank of the James River near Norfolk and North Anna on man-made Lake Anna in Louisa County between Washington and Richmond.

The two Surry units were the first to operate, going on-line in 1972 and 1973. the plant is not far from the oldest brick dwelling, Bacon's Castle, a rare Jacobean style house dating from 1665 and named for Nathaniel Bacon, who led "Bacon's Rebellion" in 1676 and had captured this house and fortified it.

The North Anna site was originally anticipated to include four operating reactors, but only two of the originally planned facilities were completed. Unit 1 began operation in June 1978 and Unit 2 in December 1980. Unit 2's operational date was in part affected by the moratorium on licensing after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

My first visit to a nuclear power plant was to North Anna Unit 1 in 1978. In August 2011 one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast occurred with its epicenter near the plant. The plant shut down safely and did not sustain significant damage, though the earthquake exceeded in some respects the original design basis for the plant.

The VEPCO plants are now operated by Dominion Power which also operates the Millstone plants  in Connecticut and until recently the Kewaunee Plant in Wisconsin. Dominion planned to construct a new reactor on the North Anna site and submitted an application in 2007 for a combined license (COL). After changing the possible design option for the new reactor, Dominion indicated in 2013 that it would revert to its original choice of the ESBWR and would submit necessary additional documentation in 2015.

Three Mile Island - 35 years later

At the time of the accident I had been at the NRC not quite 7 months. This was certainly the "significant emotional event" in the history of nuclear energy in the US and also had an impact internationally on nuclear safety.

Although the NRC was barely 4 years old at the time of the accident, some called for the abolition of the agency in favor of an agency run by a single administrator.  President Carter stuck with the Commission form of governance, but issued a Reorganization Plan in 1980 that enhanced the power of the Chairman in NRC's emergency response functions.  Improvement in emergency preparedness and response was one of the lessons learned from the TMI accident. Here's an information brochure issued by Pennsylvania after the accident:

Three Mile Island Unit 1 continues to operate today.

But I doubt we will see this wag's prediction come true for Unit 2!