The Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP) is located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in Alto Lucero,

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is the only

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

in Mexico and produces about 4.5% of the country's electrical energy. It consists of two GE Boiling Water Reactors, also known as a BWR-5 reactor, each one with an installed capacity of 682 MW using

low enriched uranium Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U ...

(3%) as fuel. Unit-1 (U-1) started its operation on July 29, 1990. Unit-2 (U-2) started its operation on April 10, 1995. Initial architects in 1975 for the plant were Burns and Roe Inc, and later Ebasco Services designed and supervised the project. The steam turbine and other components were manufactured by

Mitsubishi Electric is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...

. The plant is owned and operated by

Comisión Federal de Electricidad The Comisión Federal de Electricidad () is the Government-owned company, state-owned electric utility of Mexico, widely known as CFE. The Mexican Constitution of Mexico, constitution states that the government is responsible for the control and ...

(CFE), the national electric company owned by the Mexican government. Laguna Verde has been considered a strategic facility for the National Power System ( SEN) due to its high power generation capacity, lowest operating cost, and frequency and voltage regulation capacity. All the electric power generated is delivered to its single client, the National Energy Control Center (CENACE). CENACE is entrusted with planning, directing, and supervising the transmission and distribution of electric power to end users. CENACE has classified LVNPP as Base Load Power Plant since the beginning of its operations. The annual generation average for LVNPP starting 2005 to 2010 has been 10.5 TWh, electric energy sufficient to meet the demand of more than 4 million inhabitants. In 2020, the

Ministry of Energy A ministry of energy or department of energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rela ...

authorized the operating license extension of unit 1 for an additional 30 years, to a 60-year lifetime until 2050.

Description

The generation of electric power at the CLV is based on the technology of

nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactiv ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

atoms, which takes place in the reactor. The energy released by the nuclear fission is transferred as heat from the fuel to the cooling water, which boils into steam. The quality of steam is controlled through a separator and dryer. The separator and dryer are part of the internal processes of the reactor pressure vessel. The turbine transforms power from steam (kinetic energy) into mechanical energy causing an electric generator to move (electric power production). Once the steam has gone through the turbine, it is cooled in a condenser; the water obtained in this manner is pumped again toward the nuclear reactor, to restart the generation cycle. Steam flow rate from each reactor is 3944 kilotons/hour (kt/h) to generate 682 MW of electric power. Both Reactor Units (U1 and U2) operate using 444 enriched uranium assemblies, storing power equal to 38.9 million oil barrels. This nuclear fuel is specifically designed to be admitted into the core of the reactor. The fuel is purchased only from qualified vendors worldwide. After 18 months of operation, between 25% and 30% of the nuclear fuel is replaced. This activity is called "Refueling Outage" process.

Power Uprate

In 2007, CFE signed a contract with an investment of USD 600 million to increase the original capability of each of the units of Laguna Verde by 20%, equivalent to 255 MW, in order to tend the growth of the demand of electric power in Mexico. This power uprate will allow to LVNPP an additional annual generation of 2.1 TWh, equivalent to the demand of a city of 800,000 inhabitants. GE and CFE jointly performed the engineering analysis to determine the necessary plant modifications and to support the safety analysis report necessary for approval of the power uprate by the national nuclear regulator, the , Work began in 2008 by

Iberdrola Iberdrola, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. It has around 40,000 employees and serves around 30 million customers. Subsidiary, Subsidiaries include ScottishPower (United Kingdom), Ava ...

and

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

and finished late 2010. The main modifications consist in a turbine and condenser retrofit and the replacement of the electric generator, main steam reheater and the

feedwater heater A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered to a steam generating boiler. Preheating the feedwater reduces the irreversibilities involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynamic efficiency o ...

. The budget for the project is USD 605 million.Laguna Verde Power Uprate and Modernization Project

Awards

The following table shows the chronologic developments at Laguna Verde. Laguna Verde has obtained several awards. The plant received the National Quality Award
IFCT
2007), and Golden Award from Iberoamerican Foundation for Quality Management
FUNDIBEQ
2009). In 2009, Laguna Verde obtained Annual recognition as a Socially Responsible Enterprise awarded by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy.

References

External links

México apostará fuerte a explotar “energías limpias”, incluida la nuclear
''
La Crónica de Hoy
'' 31 March 2010)
Repotenciación de la planta de energía nuclear en Laguna Verde
'
Mexican Presidency Official Website
'' 22 May 2006)
Profile of Laguna Verde NPP
(Publication insid
WANO
{dead link, date=December 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes , Volume 13 Number 2 Year 2005)
FUNDIBEQ
2009)
Conoce sobre la generación de Energía Eléctrica por medios NuclearesCFE

Listado de centrales nucleoeléctricas generadoras en MéxicoCFE
Nuclear power stations in Mexico Buildings and structures in Veracruz Veracruz (city)

Description

Power Uprate

Awards

See also

References

External links