This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(July 2024) |
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station | |
---|---|
Official name | Exelon Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station |
Country | United States |
Location | Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 40°9′14″N76°43′29″W / 40.15389°N 76.72472°W |
Status | Shut down (restart planned) |
Construction began | Unit 1: May 18, 1968 Unit 2: November 1, 1969 |
Commission date | Unit 1: September 2, 1974 Unit 2: December 30, 1978 |
Decommission date | Unit 1: September 20, 2019 Unit 2: March 28, 1979 |
Construction cost | $1.557 billion (2007 USD) [1] ($2.00 billion in 2023 dollars [2] ) |
Owners | Unit 1: Constellation Energy Unit 2: EnergySolutions |
Operator | Constellation Energy |
Employees | 725 (2017) [3] |
Nuclear power station | |
Reactor type | PWR |
Reactor supplier | Babcock & Wilcox |
Cooling towers | 4 × Natural Draft |
Cooling source | Susquehanna River |
Thermal capacity | 1 × 2568 MWth |
Power generation | |
Make and model | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) |
Units decommissioned | 1 × 880 MW, 1 × 819 MW ( restart planned ) |
Nameplate capacity | 819 MW |
Capacity factor | 95.65% (2017) 73.25% (lifetime) |
Annual net output | 7.3 TWh (2018) 245.12 TWh (lifetime) [4] |
External links | |
Website | www |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (commonly abbreviated as TMI) is a shut-down nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island [lower-alpha 1] in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. It has two separate units, TMI-1 (owned by Constellation Energy) and TMI-2 (owned by EnergySolutions). [6]
The plant was the site of the most significant accident in United States commercial nuclear energy when, on March 28, 1979, TMI-2 suffered a partial meltdown. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, the accident resulted in no deaths or injuries to plant workers or in nearby communities. [7] Follow-up epidemiology studies did not find causality between the accident and any increase in cancers. [8] [9] [10] [11] One work-related death has occurred on-site during decommissioning. [12]
The reactor core of TMI-2 has since been removed from the site, but the site has not been fully decommissioned. [13] In July 1998, Amergen Energy (now Exelon Generation) agreed to purchase TMI-1 from General Public Utilities for $100 million. [14]
The plant was originally built by General Public Utilities Corporation, later renamed GPU Incorporated. [15] The plant was operated by Metropolitan Edison Company (Met-Ed), a subsidiary of the GPU Energy division. In 2001, GPU Inc. merged with FirstEnergy Corporation. [16] On December 18, 2020, FirstEnergy transferred Unit 2's license to EnergySolutions' subsidiary, TMI-2 Solutions, after receiving approval from the NRC. [17]
Exelon was operating Unit 1 at a financial loss since 2015. [18] In 2017, the company said it would consider ceasing operations at Unit 1 because of high costs unless there was action from the Pennsylvania government. [19] [20] Unit 1 officially shut down at noon on September 20, 2019. [21]
Unit 1 decommissioning was expected to be completed in 2079 and would have cost $1.2 billion, [22] [23] but in September 2024, Constellation Energy, the owner of the Unit, announced plans to invest $1.6 billion to bring the facility back online. The plant is expected to resume operations in 2028. [24] The entirety of the plant's energy output will be sold to Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement to purchase as much electricity as possible from the plant, which will support the company’s growing energy needs for its expanding network of data centers. [25]
Unit 2, which has been dormant since the accident in 1979, is expected to close in 2052. [26]
The NRC 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. [27]
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Three Mile Island was 211,261, an increase of 10.9 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 2,803,322, an increase of 10.3 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Harrisburg (12 miles to city center), York (13 miles to city center), and Lancaster (24 miles to city center). [28]
During its last full year of operation in 2018, Three Mile Island generated 7,355 GWh of electricity. In that same year, electricity from nuclear power produced approximately 39% of the total electricity generated in Pennsylvania (83.5 TWh nuclear of 215 TWh total), with Three Mile Island Generating Station contributing approximately 4% to the statewide total generation. In 2021 electrical generating facilities in the state of Pennsylvania generated approximately 241 TWh total electricity. [29]
Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual (Total) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | 598,586 | 558,484 | 617,640 | 540,691 | 309,720 | 427,684 | 591,460 | 588,699 | 562,563 | 130,208 | 0 | 491,028 | 5,416,763 |
2002 | 628,077 | 569,814 | 631,547 | 606,413 | 622,103 | 575,870 | 609,816 | 609,997 | 595,565 | 619,838 | 610,530 | 633,949 | 7,313,519 |
2003 | 631,984 | 572,521 | 631,971 | 605,628 | 624,685 | 597,862 | 610,219 | 609,588 | 592,306 | 309,494 | -8,042 | 418,815 | 6,197,031 |
2004 | 628,992 | 592,136 | 630,817 | 606,796 | 595,895 | 590,383 | 593,006 | 609,964 | 594,931 | 628,330 | 606,727 | 595,257 | 7,273,234 |
2005 | 634,556 | 574,716 | 633,072 | 603,671 | 622,371 | 590,245 | 606,729 | 606,110 | 590,523 | 431,976 | 227,852 | 633,640 | 6,755,461 |
2006 | 634,770 | 574,064 | 629,263 | 604,524 | 620,189 | 592,955 | 607,024 | 610,066 | 598,981 | 626,894 | 533,567 | 594,731 | 7,227,028 |
2007 | 633,504 | 571,450 | 628,411 | 604,807 | 616,716 | 591,972 | 610,453 | 608,744 | 591,535 | 387,453 | 173,525 | 626,724 | 6,645,294 |
2008 | 634,479 | 593,989 | 631,886 | 606,166 | 622,685 | 593,699 | 611,785 | 615,991 | 591,191 | 620,414 | 610,566 | 632,247 | 7,365,098 |
2009 | 632,599 | 571,398 | 627,785 | 601,665 | 613,866 | 593,159 | 610,822 | 607,848 | 593,508 | 438,962 | -2,703 | 0 | 5,888,909 |
2010 | 132,230 | 564,608 | 571,255 | 599,167 | 558,978 | 586,421 | 604,409 | 594,950 | 568,086 | 621,174 | 607,344 | 625,128 | 6,633,750 |
2011 | 625,004 | 564,025 | 622,273 | 595,735 | 593,238 | 589,577 | 599,464 | 603,021 | 563,240 | 453,968 | 82,899 | 626,385 | 6,518,829 |
2012 | 629,556 | 589,831 | 624,849 | 608,509 | 613,382 | 596,485 | 610,350 | 417,839 | 478,175 | 624,454 | 614,324 | 630,503 | 7,038,257 |
2013 | 629,685 | 570,617 | 629,618 | 606,648 | 621,454 | 595,263 | 610,260 | 614,906 | 599,698 | 536,504 | 61,179 | 583,236 | 6,659,068 |
2014 | 629,732 | 534,623 | 629,723 | 608,793 | 614,408 | 614,413 | 613,793 | 616,228 | 598,666 | 625,480 | 610,804 | 630,982 | 7,327,645 |
2015 | 631,581 | 569,154 | 629,454 | 607,974 | 490,525 | 594,154 | 577,760 | 613,283 | 593,923 | 576,594 | 84,416 | 629,223 | 6,598,041 |
2016 | 630,503 | 587,527 | 627,463 | 607,175 | 620,556 | 588,999 | 599,964 | 609,354 | 593,371 | 622,807 | 607,486 | 387,447 | 7,082,652 |
2017 | 629,440 | 569,389 | 629,237 | 604,756 | 622,133 | 594,829 | 610,064 | 615,158 | 336,473 | 404,367 | 612,290 | 632,124 | 6,860,260 |
2018 | 633,552 | 571,419 | 630,787 | 607,853 | 614,580 | 594,845 | 611,421 | 609,506 | 594,668 | 623,620 | 611,295 | 632,278 | 7,335,824 |
2019 | 632,206 | 570,764 | 629,016 | 604,853 | 617,709 | 594,819 | 608,513 | 605,781 | 350,535 | 0 | -- | -- | 5,214,196 |
The Three Mile Island Unit 1 is a pressurized water reactor designed by Babcock & Wilcox with a net generating capacity of 819 MWe. The initial construction cost for TMI-1 was US$400 million, equal to $2.47 billion in 2018 dollars. [31] Unit 1 first came online on April 19, 1974, and began commercial operations on September 2, 1974. [32] TMI-1 was licensed to operate for 40 years from its first run, and in 2009, was extended 20 years, which means it could have operated until April 19, 2034. [33] [34]
TMI-1 had a closed-cycle cooling system for its main condenser using two natural draft cooling towers. Makeup water was drawn from the river to replace the water lost via evaporation in the cooling towers. Once-through the cooling towers, river water was used in the service water system, cooling auxiliary components and removing decay heat when the reactor was shut down. On February 17, 1979, TMI-1 went offline for refueling. It was brought back online on October 9, 1985, after public opposition, several federal court injunctions, and some technical and regulatory complications – more than six years after it initially went offline. [35]
Unit 1 was scheduled to be shut down by September 2019 after Exelon announced they did not receive any commitments for subsidies from the state, rendering Exelon unable to financially continue operating the reactor. [36] [37] TMI-1 was shut down on September 20, 2019, [38] but may be brought back. The CEO of Constellation Energy, the owner of Unit 1, says the reactor is in "excellent shape," and estimated that it would go online within three years of committing to a restart. As of 2024 [update] Constellation is conducting tests for a potential decision to reopen. [39]
In February 1993, a man drove his car past a checkpoint at the TMI nuclear plant, then broke through an entry gate. He eventually crashed the car through a secure door and entered the Unit 1 turbine building. The intruder, who had a history of mental illness, hid in the turbine building and was apprehended after four hours. [40]
During and following the September 11, 2001 attacks, there was a concern that United Airlines Flight 93 was headed towards Three Mile Island. On that day, the NRC placed all of the nation's nuclear power plants into the highest level of security. United Flight 93 crashed into a field (present-day Flight 93 National Memorial) about 135 miles (217 km) west of Three Mile Island in Stonycreek Township, just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, with its actual target believed to have been Washington, D.C. [41] [42]
On November 21, 2009, a release of radioactivity occurred inside the containment building of TMI-1 while workers were cutting pipes. Exelon Corporation stated to the public that "A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal. Approximately 20 employees were treated for mild radiation exposure." [43] As of November 22,2009 [update] , it was believed that no radiation escaped the containment building and the public was not in any danger.[ citation needed ] The inside airborne contamination was caused by a change in air pressure inside the containment building that dislodged small irradiated particles in the reactor piping system. Some of the particles became airborne inside the building and were detected by an array of monitors in place to detect such material. The air pressure change occurred when inside building ventilation fans were started to support outage activities. The site modified the ventilation system to prevent future air pressure changes. Work continued on the project the following day. On January 24, 2010, TMI-1 was brought back online. [44]
On September 10, 2021, a contractor from Alabama was fatally injured while unloading equipment from a truck. Fire and emergency medical personnel from Londonderry Township were dispatched and declared the contractor dead on arrival. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the injury was work-related, and the contractor was outside the radiological controlled area. [45] [46]
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 was also a pressurized water reactor constructed by B&W, similar to Unit 1. TMI-2 was slightly larger with a net generating capacity of 906 MWe, compared to TMI-1, which delivered 819 MWe. Unit 2 received its operating license on February 8, 1978, and began commercial operation on December 30, 1978. TMI Unit 2 was permanently shut off after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. [47]
On March 28, 1979, a cooling system malfunction caused a partial meltdown of the reactor core. This loss-of-coolant accident resulted in the release of an estimated 43,000 curies (1.59 PBq) of radioactive krypton-85 gas (with an approximate half life of 11 years), and less than 20 curies (740 GBq) of the especially hazardous iodine-131 (with a half life of around 8 days), into the surrounding environment. [7]
Nearly 2 million people were exposed to radiation from the accident. [48] A review by the World Nuclear Association concluded that no deaths, injuries or adverse health effects resulted from the accident, [49] and a report by Columbia University epidemiologist Maureen Hatch confirmed this finding. [8] [50] Because of the health concerns, the Pennsylvania Department of Health kept a registry of more than 30,000 people that lived within 5 miles (8.0 km) of TMI at the time of the accident. The registry was kept for nearly 20 years until 1997, when no evidence was found of unusual health effects. [51] Further epidemiology studies have not shown any increase in cancer as a result of the accident. [9] [10] [11] However, almost $25 million was paid in insurance settlements to people who then agreed not to discuss their injuries in ongoing litigation. [52]
Unit 2 has not been operational since the accident occurred. [53]
The New York Times reported on August 14, 1993, 14 years after the accident, that the cleanup had finished. According to the United States NRC, 2.3 million gallons of waste water had been removed. [54]
The incident was widely publicized internationally, and had far-reaching effects on public opinion, particularly in the United States. The China Syndrome , a movie about a nuclear disaster, which was released 12 days before the incident and received a glowing reception from the movie-going public, became a blockbuster hit. [55]
On January 22, 2010, officials at the NRC announced the electrical generator from the damaged Unit 2 reactor at TMI will be used at Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant in New Hill, North Carolina. The generator was transported in two parts, weighing a combined 670 tons. It was refurbished and installed during a refueling outage at Shearon Harris NPP in November 2010. [56]
Exelon Corporation was created in October 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois respectively. [57] Unicom owned Commonwealth Edison. The PECO share in AmerGen was acquired by Exelon during late 2000. Exelon acquired British Energy's share in AmerGen in 2003, [58] and transferred Unit 1 under the direct ownership and operation of its Exelon Nuclear business unit. [59] [60] According to Exelon Corporation, "many people are surprised when they learn that Three Mile Island is still making electricity, enough to power 800,000 households" from its undamaged and fully functional reactor unit 1. [61] Exelon viewed the plant's economics of $44/MWh as challenging due to the low price of natural gas at $25/MWh. As of 2016, the average price of electricity in the area was $39/MWh. [62]
On June 20, 2017, Exelon Generation, the owners of Three Mile Island's Unit 1, sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a formal notice of its intention to shut down the plant on September 30, 2019, [63] unless the Pennsylvania legislature rescued the nuclear industry, which was struggling to compete as newfound natural gas resources drove down electricity prices. [64] Exelon Generation's Senior Vice President Bryan Hanson noted that once Three Mile Island was closed, it could never be reopened for use again. [63] Hanson explicitly stated the reason for the shutdown is because of the unprofitability of Unit 1. Unit 1 has lost the company over $300 million over the last half-decade despite it being one of Exelon's best-performing power plants.
About 70 state legislators signed the industry-inspired Nuclear Caucus but made no financial commitments. [64]
In April 2019, Exelon stated it would cost $1.2 billion over nearly 60 years to completely decommission Unit 1. [65] Unit 1 closed on September 20, 2019.
In 2022, Unit 1 was transferred to Constellation Energy following separation from Exelon. Unit 2 was also transferred to TriArtisan ES Partners, LLC – following their acquisition of EnergySolutions.
This section needs to be updated.(September 2024) |
Following the TMI-2 accident in 1979, approximately 99% of the fuel and damaged core debris was removed from the reactor vessel and associated systems and shipped to the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Since 1993, when the initial cleanup of the plant was completed, TMI-2 has been in a condition known as Post Defueling Monitored Storage (PDMS) and is under constant monitoring to ensure the plant's safety and stability. The remaining 1% of residual fuel that still remains at the site is planned to be removed by 2029. [66]
The cost of decommissioning a closed nuclear reactor and related structures at Three Mile Island is estimated at $918 million. [67]
On September 20, 2024, citing a resurgence in the need for nuclear generated carbon free electricity, Constellation Energy announced plans to reopen Three Mile Island Unit 1 in 2028. It will be renamed the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center, in honor of former Exelon Corporation CEO Chris Crane. Crane, who started his career in nuclear energy as a Reactor Operator with ComEd, retired from Exelon in December 2022 and died on April 13, 2024. [68] [69]
As part of this plan, Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement to purchase power from the facility once it resumes operation, aiming to support the energy demands of its expanding AI data centers. Constellation Energy will invest $1.6 billion in the plant’s upgrades, pending regulatory approval. [70]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Three Mile Island was 1 in 25,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. [71] [72]
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The reactor accident began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979, and released radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment. It is the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. On the seven-point logarithmic International Nuclear Event Scale, the TMI-2 reactor accident is rated Level 5, an "Accident with Wider Consequences".
The Limerick Generating Station is a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania located next to the Schuylkill River in Limerick Township, Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia. The facility has two General Electric boiling water reactor (BWR) units, cooled by natural draft cooling towers. According to its owner, Constellation Energy, the two units are capable of producing 2,317 megawatts of power, which combined would provide electricity to around 2 million households. Constellation owns and operates this facility following their separation from Exelon Corporation in 2022. With the exception of refueling outages, Limerick Generating Station continuously operates at 100% power. The plant is connected to the grid, and transmits power, via multiple 500kv transmission lines.
Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station is an inactive single unit 636 MWe boiling water reactor power plant in the United States. The plant is located on an 800-acre (3.2 km2) site adjacent to Oyster Creek in the Forked River section of Lacey Township in Ocean County, New Jersey. At the time of its closure, the facility was owned by Exelon Corporation and, along with unit 1 at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station, was the oldest operating commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. The plant first started commercial operation on December 23, 1969, and is licensed to operate until April 9, 2029, but Oyster Creek was permanently shut down in September 2018. The plant got its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, a brackish estuary that empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Barnegat Inlet.
Dresden Generating Station is the first privately financed nuclear power plant built in the United States. Dresden 1 was activated in 1960 and retired in 1978. Operating since 1970 are Dresden units 2 and 3, two General Electric BWR-3 boiling water reactors. Dresden Station is located on a 953-acre (386 ha) site in Grundy County, Illinois near the city of Morris. It is at the head of the Illinois River, where the Des Plaines River and Kankakee River meet. It is immediately northeast of the Morris Operation—the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States. It serves Chicago and the northern quarter of the state of Illinois, capable of producing 867 megawatts of electricity from each of its two reactors, enough to power over one million average American homes.
Braidwood Generating Station is located in Will County in northeastern Illinois, U.S. The nuclear power plant serves Chicago and northern Illinois with electricity. The plant was originally built by Commonwealth Edison company, and subsequently transferred to Com Ed's parent company, Exelon Corporation. Following Exelon's spin-off of their Generation company, the station was transferred to Constellation Energy.
The Byron Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located in Ogle County, Illinois, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the Rock River. The reactor buildings were constructed by Commonwealth Edison and house two Westinghouse Four-Loop pressurized water reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2, which began operation in September 1985 and August 1987 respectively. The plant is owned and operated by Constellation Energy.
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant (CCNPP) is a nuclear power plant located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland, in the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is the only nuclear power plant in the state of Maryland.
The Robert Emmett Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, commonly known as Ginna, is a nuclear power plant located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, in the town of Ontario, Wayne County, New York, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of Rochester, New York. It is a single unit Westinghouse 2-Loop pressurized water reactor, similar to those at Point Beach, Kewaunee, and Prairie Island. Having gone into commercial operation in 1970, Ginna became the second oldest nuclear power reactor, after Nine Mile unit 1, still in operation in the United States when the Oyster Creek power plant was permanently shut down on September 17, 2018.
The Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station is an American nuclear power plant that is located 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Harrisburg in Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Situated close to the Susquehanna River, it is three miles north of the Maryland border.
The Sequoyah Nuclear Plant is a nuclear power plant located on 525 acres (212 ha) located 7 miles (11 km) east of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, and 20 miles (32 km) north of Chattanooga, abutting Chickamauga Lake on the Tennessee River. The facility is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
The Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant is an electricity-generating facility located in Red Wing, Minnesota, along the Mississippi River, and adjacent to the Prairie Island Indian Community reservation.
Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station is a nuclear power plant with two nuclear reactors located in the town of Scriba, approximately five miles northeast of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. The 900-acre (360 ha) site is also occupied by the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant.
Zion Nuclear Power Station was the third dual-reactor nuclear power plant in the Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) network and served Chicago and the northern quarter of Illinois. The plant was built in 1973, and the first unit started producing power in December 1973. The second unit came online in September 1974. This power generating station is located on 257 acres (104 ha) of Lake Michigan shoreline, in the city of Zion, Lake County, Illinois. It is approximately 40 direct-line miles north of Chicago, Illinois and 42 miles (68 km) south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Clinton Power Station is a nuclear power plant located near Clinton, Illinois, USA. The power station began commercial operation on November 24, 1987 and has a nominal net electric output of 1062 MWe. Due to inflation and cost overruns, Clinton's final construction cost was $4.25 billion, nearly 1,000% over the original budget of $430 million and seven years behind schedule.
The Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant on the shore of Lake Erie near Monroe, in Frenchtown Charter Township, Michigan on approximately 1,000 acres (400 ha). All units of the plant are operated by the DTE Energy Electric Company and owned by parent company DTE Energy. It is approximately halfway between Detroit, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio. It is also visible from parts of Amherstburg and Colchester, Ontario as well as on the shore of Lake Erie in Ottawa County, Ohio. Two units have been constructed on this site. The first unit's construction started on August 4, 1956 and reached initial criticality on August 23, 1963, and the second unit received its construction permit on September 26, 1972. It reached criticality on June 21, 1985 and was declared commercial on November 18, 1988. The plant is connected to two single-circuit 345 kV Transmission Lines and three 120 kV lines. They are operated and maintained by ITC Transmission.
LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station, located in Brookfield Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, near Marseilles, 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Ottawa, serves Chicago and Northern Illinois with electricity. The plant is owned and operated by Constellation Energy following separation from Exelon Corporation in 2022. Its Units 1 and 2 began commercial operation in October 1982, and October 1984, respectively.
Quad Cities Generating Station is a two-unit nuclear power plant located near Cordova, Illinois, United States, on the Mississippi River. The two General Electric boiling water reactors give the plant a total gross electric capacity of approximately 1,880 MW. It was named for the nearby cities of Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa, East Moline, Illinois, and Bettendorf, Iowa — known as the Quad Cities.
In the United States, nuclear power is provided by 94 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 97 gigawatts (GW), with 63 pressurized water reactors and 31 boiling water reactors. In 2019, they produced a total of 809.41 terawatt-hours of electricity, which accounted for 20% of the nation's total electric energy generation. In 2018, nuclear comprised nearly 50 percent of US emission-free energy generation.
The United States Government Accountability Office reported more than 150 incidents from 2001 to 2006 of nuclear plants not performing within acceptable safety guidelines. According to a 2010 survey of energy accidents, there have been at least 56 accidents at nuclear reactors in the United States. The most serious of these was the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant has been the source of two of the top five most dangerous nuclear incidents in the United States since 1979. Relatively few accidents have involved fatalities.
Nuclear power has been widely established in Pennsylvania since the 1950s and has grown to provide almost 25% of the energy produced in PA. This is achieved through the four active reactors currently operating. There are five inactive reactors in PA, including Three Mile Island, which had a partial meltdown and caused a reevaluation of nuclear reactor safety practices.
Thyroid cancer incidence has not increased in Dauphin County, the county in which TMI is located. York County demonstrated a trend toward increasing thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1995, approximately 15 years after the TMI accident. Lancaster County showed a significant increase in thyroid cancer incidence beginning in 1990. These findings, however, do not provide a causal link to the TMI accident.
RESULTS: A modest association was found between postaccident cancer rates and proximity (OR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.3, 1.6). After adjusting for a gradient in cancer risk prior to the accident, the odds ratio contrasting those closest to the plant with those living farther out was 1.2 (95% CI = 1.0, 1.4). A postaccident increase in cancer rates near the Three Mile Island plant was notable in 1982, persisted for another year, and then declined. Radiation emissions, as modeled mathematically, did not account for the observed increase.
unless the government intervenes to keep the plant running, the notorious facility's "long-term future past 2019" is in doubt.