Nuclear Power In The United States
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Nuclear Power In The United States
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, and by 2024 nuclear energy accounted for 18.6% of the nation's total electric energy generation. In 2018, nuclear comprised nearly 50 percent of US emission-free energy generation. there were two new reactors under construction with a gross electrical capacity of 2,500 MW, while 39 reactors have been permanently shut down. The United States is the world's largest producer of commercial nuclear power, and in 2013 generated 33% of the world's nuclear electricity. With the past and future scheduled plant closings, China and Russia could surpass the United States in nuclear energy production. the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had granted license renewals providing 20-year extensions to a total of 74 reactors. In early 2014 ...
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San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is a permanently closed nuclear power plant located south of San Clemente, California, on the Pacific coast, in Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV. The plant was shut down in 2013 after defects were found in replacement steam generators; it is currently in the process of being decommissioned. The 2.2 GW of electricity supply lost when the plant shut down was replaced with 1.8 GW from new natural-gas-fired power plants and 250 MW from energy-storage projects. The plant is owned by Southern California Edison (SCE). Edison International, parent of SCE, holds 78.2% ownership in the plant; San Diego Gas & Electric, 20%; and the City of Riverside Utilities Department, 1.8%. When fully functional, it employed over 2,200 people. Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Surf Line, the station is a prominent landmark because of its twin hemispherical containment buildings, which were designed to contain any fission product ...
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Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station
The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor pair used for electric power generation. It is located on a 1,770-acre (7.2 km²) site in Rhea County, Tennessee, near Spring City, between Chattanooga and Knoxville. Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 1.2 million households in the Tennessee Valley. The plant, construction of which began in 1973, has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactor units: Unit 1, completed in 1996, and Unit 2, completed in 2015. Unit 1 has a winter net dependable generating capacity of 1,167 megawatts. Unit 2 has a capacity of 1,165 megawatts. Unit 2 was the first of three new power reactors to enter service in the 21st century in the United States, followed by Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4. Unit 1 Construction on Unit 1 began on 23 January 1973 and suffered from many delays. After construction was halted on both units in 1985, construction resumed on Unit 1 in 1 ...
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Vogtle Electric Generating Plant
The Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, also known as Plant Vogtle ( ), is a four-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. With a power capacity of 4,536 megawatts, it is the largest nuclear power plant in the United States (as of 2025), when construction of Units 3 & 4 began. It is also the only nuclear plant in the country with four units. It is named after a former Alabama Power and Southern Company board chairman, Alvin Vogtle. The first two units are Westinghouse pressurized water reactors (PWR), with a General Electric steam turbine and electric generator. Units 1 and 2 were completed in 1987 and 1989, respectively, and have a gross electricity generation capacity of 1,215 MW, for a combined capacity of 2,430 MW. The twin natural-draft cooling towers are tall and provide cooling to the plant's main condensers. Four smaller mechanical draft cooling towers provide ...
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Virgil C
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the ''Eclogues'' (or ''Bucolics''), the ''Georgics'', and the epic ''Aeneid''. A number of minor poems, collected in the ''Appendix Vergiliana'', were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars generally regard these works as spurious, with the possible exception of a few short pieces. Already acclaimed in his own lifetime as a classic author, Virgil rapidly replaced Ennius and other earlier authors as a standard school text, and stood as the most popular Latin poet through late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and early modernity, exerting inestimable influence on all subsequent Western literature. Geoffrey Chaucer assigned Virgil a uniquely prominent position among all the celebrities of human history in ''The House of Fame'' (1374–85), describ ...
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Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in electrical grid failure and damaged nearly all of the power plant's Emergency power system, backup energy sources. The subsequent inability to sufficiently cool reactors after shutdown compromised Primary containment, containment and resulted in the release of radioactive contamination, radioactive contaminants into the surrounding environment. The accident was rated seven (the maximum severity) on the International Nuclear Event Scale by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, following a report by the JNES (Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization). It is regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which was also rated a seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale. According to the United Nati ...
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Nuclear Power 2010 Program
The "Nuclear Power 2010 Program" was launched in 2002 by President George W. Bush, 13 months after the beginning of his presidency, in order to restart orders for nuclear power reactors in the U.S. by providing subsidies for a handful of Generation III+ demonstration plants. The expectation was that these plants would come online by 2010, but this date was not met. In March 2017, the leading nuclear-plant maker, Westinghouse Electric Company, filed for bankruptcy due to losing over 9 billion in construction losses from working on two nuclear plants. This loss was partly caused by safety concerns due to the Fukushima disaster, Germany's Energiewende, the growth of solar and wind power, and low natural gas prices. Overview The "Nuclear Power 2010 Program" was unveiled by the U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham on February 14, 2002, as one means towards addressing the expected need for new power plants. The program was a joint government/industry cost-shared effort to ident ...
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Nuclear Renaissance
Since about 2001 the term nuclear renaissance has been used to refer to a possible nuclear power industry revival, driven by rising fossil fuel prices and new concerns about meeting greenhouse gas emission limits. The term emerged in a context brought about by a worldwide slowdown in the rollout of new nuclear projects. The quantity of nuclear electricity generated worldwide had previously had a marked increase in the period from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. This was brought about by massive nuclear programs in countries such as the US and France (see graph). With spiralling costs and a decline in the public acceptability of nuclear projects brought about in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, the speed of the rollout dwindled rapidly, leading to growing questions about the future of the industry. In the 2000s, the principal vehicle of industry growth was thought to be the project then known as the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), led jointly b ...
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Cost Overrun
A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known by these terms. Cost overruns are common in infrastructure, building, and technology projects. For IT projects, a 2004 industry study by the Standish Group found an average cost overrun of 43 percent; 71 percent of projects came in over budget, exceeded time estimates, and had estimated too narrow a scope; and total waste was estimated at $55 billion per year in the US alone. Many major construction projects have incurred cost overruns; cost estimates used to decide whether important transportation infrastructure should be built can mislead grossly and systematically. Cost overrun is distinguished from cost escalation, which is an ''anticipated'' growth in a budgeted cost due to factors such as inflation. Causes Recent works by Ahi ...
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Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global economy, and economic development. Brookings states that its staff "represent diverse points of view" and describes itself as nonpartisan. Media outlets have variously described Brookings as Centrism in the United States, centrist, Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal, and Centre-left politics, center-left. The University of Pennsylvania's ''Global Go To Think Tank Index Report'' has named Brookings "Think Tank of the Year" and "Top Think Tank in the World" every year since 2008. History 20th century Brookings was founded in 1916 as the Institute for Government Research (IGR), with the mission of becoming "the first private organization devoted to analyzing public policy issues at the national level." The organization was founded o ...
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Three Mile Island Accident
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, located on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Londonderry Township near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The reactor accident began at 4:00 a.m. on March 28, 1979, and released Radioactive decay, radioactive gases and radioactive iodine-131, iodine into the environment. It is the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. On the seven-point Logarithmic scale, logarithmic International Nuclear Event Scale, the TMI-2 reactor accident is rated Level5, an "Accident with Wider Consequences". The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of water to escape from the pressurized isolated coolant loop. The mechanical failures were compounded by the in ...
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Indian Point Energy Center
Indian Point Energy Center (I.P.E.C.) is a now defunct three-unit nuclear power station located in Buchanan, just south of Peekskill, in Westchester County, New York. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River, about north of Midtown Manhattan. The facility permanently ceased power operations on April 30, 2021. Before its closure, the station's two operating reactors generated about 2,000 megawatts ( MWe) of electrical power, about 25% of New York City's usage. The station is owned by Holtec International, and consists of three permanently deactivated reactors, Indian Point Units 1, 2, and 3. Units 2 and 3 were Westinghouse pressurized water reactors. Entergy purchased Unit 3 from the New York Power Authority in 2000 and Units 1 and 2 from Consolidated Edison in 2001. The original 40-year operating licenses for Units 2 and 3 expired in September 2013 and December 2015, respectively. Entergy had applied for license extensions and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ...
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