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 | Being decommissioned |
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] ) |
Owner(s) | Unit 1: Constellation Energy Unit 2: EnergySolutions |
Operator(s) | 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 | |
Units operational | 1 × 819 MW |
Make and model | B&W LLP (DRYAMB) |
Units decommissioned | 1 × 880 MW |
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 closed 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 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 over 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 is expected to be completed in 2079 and will cost $1.2 billion. [22] [23] Unit 2, which has been dormant since the accident in 1979, is expected to close in 2052. [24]
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. [25]
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). [26]
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 the state of Pennsylvania generated approximately 241 TWh total electricity. [27]
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 $2.37 billion in 2018 dollars. [29] Unit 1 first came online on April 19, 1974, and began commercial operations on September 2, 1974. [30] TMI-1 is 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. [31] [32]
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 towers. Once-through cooling with river water is used for the service water system which cools auxiliary components and removed 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. [33]
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 continue operating the reactor. [34] [35] TMI-1 was shut down on September 20, 2019. [36]
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. [37]
During and following the September 11 attacks, there was a moral panic 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 about 135 miles west (217 km) of Three Mile Island in Stonycreek Township, just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, with its actual target believed to have been Washington, D.C. [38] [39]
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." [40] 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 small 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. [41]
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. [42] [43]
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 was also a pressurized water reactor constructed by B&W, similar to Unit 1. The only difference was that TMI-2 was slightly larger with a net generating capacity of 906 MWe, compared to TMI-1, which delivers 819 MWe. Unit 2 received its operating license on February 8, 1978, and began commercial operation on December 30, 1978. TMI Unit 2 has been permanently shut off after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. [44]
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 (half life 10 yrs), and less than 20 curies (740 GBq) of the especially hazardous iodine-131 (half life 8 days), into the surrounding environment. [7]
Nearly 2 million people were exposed to radiation from the accident. [45] A review by the World Nuclear Association concluded that no deaths, injuries or adverse health effects resulted from the accident, [46] and a report by Columbia University epidemiologist Maureen Hatch confirmed this finding. [8] [47] 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. [48] 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. [49]
Unit 2 has not been operational since the accident occurred. [50]
The New York Times reported on August 14, 1993, 14 years after the accident, that the cleanup had been finished. According to the United States NRC, 2.3 million gallons of waste water had been removed. [51]
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. [52]
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. TMI's Unit 2 reactor has been shut down since the partial meltdown in 1979. [53]
Exelon Corporation was created in October 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom, of Philadelphia and Chicago respectively. [54] 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, [55] and transferred Unit 1 under the direct ownership and operation of its Exelon Nuclear business unit. [56] [57] 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. [58] 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. [59]
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, [60] unless the Pennsylvania legislature rescued the nuclear industry, which was struggling to compete as newfound natural gas resources drove down electricity prices. [61] Exelon Generation's Senior Vice President Bryan Hanson noted that once Three Mile Island was closed, it could never be reopened for use again. [60] 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.
Shut down of Unit 1 can go in two possible directions, the first being the immediate dismantlement after the radioactive fuel has been moved away from the plant. The dismantlement can proceed after the spent fuel is removed from the pool, put into storage casks, and the casks are transferred to the ISFSI pad for storage until the DOE takes them away to a DOE repository. Dismantling the plant this way will take anywhere from 8 to 10 years. [62] The second option Exelon could take is the long-term storage, which involves mothballing the plant and letting the radiation decay for up to 60 years on its own to a harmless level before completely dismantling the buildings. The advantage to the long-term storage is the lack of radiation when the dismantlement would begin but the disadvantage would be the possible lack of qualified workers at the time of dismantlement. Exelon would also have to pay for limited maintenance and security of the plant over the potential 60 years. [62] The entirety of the spent fuel will be moved to the Londonderry Township facility, which is another process that could take decades to complete. [60]
About 70 state legislators signed the industry-inspired Nuclear Caucus but made no financial commitments. [61]
In April 2019, Exelon stated it would cost $1.2 billion over nearly 60 years to completely decommission Unit 1. [63] 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.
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 cost of decommissioning a closed nuclear reactor and related structures at Three Mile Island is estimated at $918 million. [64]
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. [65] [66]
The Three Mile Island accident was a 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 the capital city of 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".
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)unless the government intervenes to keep the plant running, the notorious facility's "long-term future past 2019" is in doubt.