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STP-084 ……………………………………………………Date: 03/16/10
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Will We Get More Electricity from Nuclear Power Soon?
Recently, while vacationing in Arizona, I had the privilege of visiting the largest nuclear power plant in the United States. The Palo Verde Power Plant (PVPP) is a nuclear facility located in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 45 miles west of central Phoenix. Here are some brief facts:
1. It’s the largest nuclear generating plant in the US. It averaged 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of electrical power output in 2008. Believe me, that is a huge amount of power. It helped to light up greater Phoenix and a large part of southern California.
2. PVPP consists of 3 independent units. Each reactor is a pressurized water reactor that was built by Combustion Engineering; the Bechtel Corporation was the primary contractor. The reactor containment buildings are some of the largest in the world. The 3 containment domes over the reactors are made of 4-foot thick concrete shells, reinforced by steel rebars.
3. Construction started in 1976; About twelve years later, in 1988, PVPP began delivering electrical power.
4. Since it’s located in the Arizona desert, it’s the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is NOT located near a lake or an ocean. It used 20 billion US gallons of treated sewerage water from Phoenix and the surrounding towns. (What a great deal for Phoenix: it supplies the sewage effluent and gets lots of electrical power in return!)
In a very informative presentation, one of the plant’s managers stressed the high emphasis on safety issues. Safety meetings of some sort are held every day at this facility. There have been NO accidents of consequence in 22 years of operations!
Photo by: Stanley Goslovich
This photo of one of the reactor buildings at the Palo Verde Power Plant was taken from inside our tour bus on March 4, 2010. It shows moist air rising from a set of cooling towers and condensing in the cool morning air. The reactor containment dome is seen on the right.
For more information, go to Wikipedia and search for “Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station”.
The Nuclear Power Controversey
I mention all of this because nuclear power generation in the United States has been very controversial for many years. Most citizens are not aware of the fact that NO new nuclear generating plants have been built in the U.S. for over 30 years. We do have 104 nuclear plants operating today but they supply less than 20% of our current needs. About 50% of US electrical power comes from coal-fired plants that require 100-car trainloads of coal each day in some cases. Is it any wonder that this contributes greatly to our air pollution problems?
Yet, many other countries around the world have been operating nuclear power plants for years without serious problems. For example, France generates about 70% of it’s electric power requirements with nuclear power. Other countries such as the UK and Germany have quite a few nuclear plants in operation. Today, there are 56 nuclear reactor plants being built around the world. China, with it’s fast growing economy, has 17 nuclear plants now under construction!
The Waste Disposal Problem
Yes, there is the problem of nuclear waste disposal. In the US, it’s especially controversial. Here, it’s the mother of all NIMBY problems. Yet these other nations seem to have found satisfactory solutions judging by the number of reactors already built and under construction. The problem could have been handled here in the US if the Yucca Mountain Repository had been approved. Congress selected this site in 1987 and billions of tax payer dollars have been spent on its construction. The project has been steeped in controversy because of a gigantic, NIMBY fight involving Nevada and Washington politicians. But, that is now over. On March 3, 2010, the Department of Energy (DOE), with the sanction of the Obama administration, killed the project with the following brief announcement, “ The D.O.E. today filed a motion with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to withdraw the license for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada with prejudice.” End of that sad saga.
Improving Attitudes Toward Nuclear Power
Fortunately, the bias against nuclear power in the US seems to be lessening. The current administration in Washington has recently taken a small step toward more production of energy by new nuclear plants. In February, the President announced a plan for $8 billion dollars in loan guarantees for the construction of the first new nuclear plants in the US in 30 years. The guarantees will go toward the construction of two new nuclear reactors at an existing facility in Burke, Georgia.
So, the President taketh away with one hand and giveth a token reward with the other. Let’s hope his plan will, in due course, be followed by deeds — like putting power shovels into the ground at appropriate sites to construct more needed nuclear plants.
Do we really want to pay $200 or more for foreign oil in the future? The US clearly needs to move ahead on several new energy fronts like natural gas, fuel cells, solar power, wind power, and nuclear power. The time for a major effort for nuclear power, to join with the other potential sources, is NOW.
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Stan Goslovich,
Editor
