Shippingport Nuclear Power Plant
| Shippingport Nuclear Power Plant | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| location | ||
|
||
| Coordinates | 40 ° 37 '16 " N , 80 ° 26' 7" W | |
| Country: | United States | |
| Data | ||
| Owner: | Department of Energy and Duquesne Light Co. | |
| Operator: | Department of Energy and Duquesne Light Co. | |
| Project start: | 1953 | |
| Commercial operation: | May 26, 1958 | |
| Shutdown: | Oct. 1, 1982 | |
|
Decommissioned reactors (gross): |
1 (68 MW) | |
| Was standing: | March 21, 2008 | |
| The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation . | ||
The Shippingport nuclear power plant was built from 1954 in Shippingport on the Ohio River in Pennsylvania , about 40 km from Pittsburgh , and went into operation in 1957. It was the first civil nuclear reactor in the United States and, after the Vallecitos nuclear power plant, the second US nuclear power plant to go online. The Department of Energy and Duquesne Light owned and operated the property . The supplier was Westinghouse Electric . The larger Beaver Valley nuclear power plant was built at the same location from 1967.
The reactor
The power plant had a pressurized water reactor and a gross electrical output of 68 MW , a net output of 60 MW and a thermal output of 236 MW. The reactor was built as a prototype for commercial power generation. In 1977 he was in a light water breeder reactor ( PLWBR , P ressurized L ight- W ater B Reeder R rebuilt eactor), in which thorium -232, instead of the more expensive uranium -233, the starting fuel was. Thorium operation lasted for five years.
Construction and reactor type
In 1953, then US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his Atoms for Peace speech . The peaceful use of nuclear energy was the most important part of his speech. Therefore, on January 1, 1954, construction of the Shippingport nuclear power plant began. The technical design of the nuclear reactor of the power plant corresponded to the nuclear propulsion engine of the US nuclear submarines. The onshore nuclear power plant took over the compactness and thus the high power density of the submarine reactors, thus also their safety concept. In terms of research, it was believed that the type of light water reactor used here for the first time in a semi-commercial manner is inherently safe because it has a negative void coefficient , i.e. it switches off when bubbles form in the coolant. It was later necessary to take note that there are also other core meltdown scenarios. The risk that lies in the decay heat was not recognized . Because of them, the sensitive fuel elements of the light water reactor require active cooling even after the nuclear power plant has been shut down, even after they have been removed from the reactor for about five years. The reactor pressure vessel adopted from the submarine concept has a residual probability of bursting . Both apply to all light water reactors under construction and operation worldwide.
Installation
On December 2, 1957, the nuclear power plant was synchronized with the power grid for the first time. On May 26, 1958, the reactor went into commercial operation. In 1977 it was converted to the PLWBR and went back online that same year.
Shutdown
On October 1, 1982, the reactor was shut down after almost 25 years of operation. The dismantling of the plant began in September 1985. In December the 956-tonne parts, such as the reactor pressure vessel and the neutron shield, were lifted out of the containment and taken to Washington State for disposal . The area was cleaned and decontaminated and then released for unrestricted use. The demolition cost $ 98 million, according to a 1990 estimate.
Data of the reactor blocks
The Shippingport nuclear power plant had one power plant unit :
| Reactor block | Reactor type | net power |
gross power |
start of building | Network synchronization |
Commercialization of essential operation |
switching off processing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shippingport | Pressurized water reactor, later PLWBR | 60 MW | 68 MW | 01/01/1954 | 12/02/1957 | 05/26/1958 | 10/01/1982 |
Individual evidence
- ^ The History of Nuclear Power Safety , http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/nksafe/fifties.html
- ↑ FR Mynatt: Nuclear Reactor safety research since Three Mile Iceland, Science , Vol 216., 1982
- ↑ Nukeworker - Shippingport ( Memento of the original dated November 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Nuclear Energy Decommissioning
- ^ Duerr, David (March 1990). "Lift of Shippingport Reactor Pressure Vessel" ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "United States of America: Nuclear Power Reactors - Alphabetic" (English)
