The Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant was [1] [2] [3] a proposed nuclear power plant, which would have been built on the Bell Bend of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania adjacent to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station. [4]
On October 10, 2008, PPL Bell Bend, LLC, a subsidiary of PPL submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License application (COL) for the plant with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) [5] — in time for the potential plant to qualify for production tax credits under the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005. [6]
The proposed nuclear power plant consisted of one European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) steam electric system designed by the French company AREVA. The rated core thermal power would be 4,590 MWt. The rated and design net electrical output was approximately 1,600 MWe. [7] A total of four plants using this technology were under construction in 2008 in Finland, France, and China. [8] The two units at Taishan nuclear power plant have since entered commercial operations while Olkiluoto 3 (the first EPR to start construction) reached first criticality in late 2021 whereas Flamanville 3 is still not finished as of 2022. The plant would have been built by PPL and UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint enterprise of Constellation and French energy giant EDF.
PPL spokesman Dan McCarthy said in 2008 that the plant would cost about $10 billion to develop, and seven to eight years to construct — beginning operation in 2016 or 2017. [8] A 2011 estimate gave costs as $13–15 billion and an operational starting date of 2018-20. [4] PPL filed an initial application for federal loan guarantees by the September 29, 2008 deadline. [9] PPL intended to submit the second part of the application by the December 19 deadline. [8] PPL Chief Operating Officer William Spence said, "Without federal loan guarantees, companies like PPL will not be able to secure financing for the substantial cost of building new, advanced-design nuclear energy plants that will help this country achieve challenging limits on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as energy independence". [10]
The license application was withdrawn on August 31, 2016. [1]
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant with a single Westinghouse designed pressurized-water nuclear reactor operated by Duke Energy. It was named in honor of W. Shearon Harris, former president of Carolina Power & Light. Located in New Hill, North Carolina, in the United States, about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Raleigh, it generates 900 MWe, has a 523-foot (160 m) natural draft cooling tower, and uses Harris Lake for cooling. The reactor achieved criticality in January 1987 and began providing power commercially on May 2 of that year.
The EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germany. In Europe this reactor design was called European Pressurised Reactor, and the internationalised name was Evolutionary Power Reactor, but it is now simply named EPR.
The Callaway Plant is a nuclear power plant located on a 2,767 acres (1,120 ha) site in Callaway County, Missouri, near Fulton, Missouri. It began operating on December 19, 1984. The plant, which is the state's only commercial nuclear unit, has one 1,190-megawatt Westinghouse four-loop (SNUPPS) pressurized water reactor and a General Electric turbine-generator. It is owned by the Ameren Corporation and operated by subsidiary Ameren Missouri. The WH reactor design constructed at Callaway was known as "SNUPPS" an acronym for "Standard Nuclear Unit Power Plant System" and was part of several plants built by Westinghouse as a standardized design that could be easily replicated across many different sites to simplify the construction process.
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 Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, also known as Plant Vogtle, is a two-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. It is named after a former Alabama Power and Southern Company board chairman, Alvin Vogtle.
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.
River Bend Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station on a 3,300-acre (1,300 ha) site near St. Francisville, Louisiana in West Feliciana Parish, approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Baton Rouge. The station has one sixth generation General Electric boiling water reactor that has a nominal gross electric output of about 1010 MWe. Commercial operation began on June 16, 1986.
The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is one of Finland's two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unit VVER Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is owned and operated by Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), a subsidiary of Pohjolan Voima, and is located on Olkiluoto Island, on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland, about 20 kilometres from the town of Rauma and about 50 kilometres from the city of Pori.
The "Nuclear Power 2010 Program" was launched in 2002 by President George W. Bush in 2002, 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 it was not met.
As of 2022, Finland has five operating nuclear reactors in two power plants, all located on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and provided about 35% of the country's electricity in 2019. The first research nuclear reactor in Finland was commissioned in 1962 and the first commercial reactor started operation in 1977. A fifth reactor is in the commissioning phase, having started producing electricity and scheduled to begin regular operation in September 2022, and a sixth reactor is planned. If all proposed projects are completed, the share of electricity produced by nuclear could almost double, reaching around 60%.
The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power station, is on the Susquehanna River in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
Holtwood Dam is the oldest of three major dams built across the lower Susquehanna River, and the middle location of the three. It was constructed as the McCalls Ferry Dam between 1905 and 1910 by the Pennsylvania Water & Power (PW&P) Company. The dam was renamed Holtwood in honor of two company executives. PW&P merged with Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL) in 1955. In 2015 Talen Energy took over PPL's generation and immediately sold the Holtwood plant to Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners to comply with federal antitrust requirements.
UniStar Nuclear Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of EDF, formed in 2007 to develop new nuclear energy facilities in the United States.
Nuclear power construction costs have varied significantly across the world and in time. Large and rapid increases in cost occurred during the 1970s, especially in the United States. Recent cost trends in countries such as Japan and Korea have been very different, including periods of stability and decline in costs.
A Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) is a specific proposed generation IV very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR) that could be coupled to a neighboring hydrogen production facility. It could also produce electricity and supply process heat. Up to 30% of this heat could be used to produce hydrogen via high-temperature electrolysis significantly reducing the cost of the process. The envisioned reactor design is helium-cooled, using graphite-moderated thermal neutrons, and TRISO fueled.
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a facility located in Scioto Township, Pike County, Ohio, just south of Piketon, Ohio that previously produced enriched uranium, including highly enriched weapons-grade uranium, for the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), US nuclear weapons program, and Navy nuclear propulsion; in later years it produced low enriched uranium for fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors. The site never hosted an operating nuclear reactor. The Portsmouth plant, so named because of its proximity to the city of Portsmouth, Ohio, approximately 22 miles south of the site, was one of three gaseous diffusion plants in the United States, alongside the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky. The plant was constructed from 1952–1956, with the first enrichment cells going online in 1954. The former plant facilities are currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). Some site facilities are overseen by the United States Enrichment Corporation, a subsidiary of Centrus Energy. The D&D work on the older facilities to prepare the site for future use is expected to continue through 2024 and is being conducted by Fluor-B&W Portsmouth LLC.
Between 2007 and 2009, 13 companies applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for construction and operating licenses to build 31 new nuclear power reactors in the United States. However, the case for widespread nuclear plant construction has been hampered due to inexpensive natural gas, slow electricity demand growth in a weak US economy, lack of financing, and safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The nuclear energy policy of the United States began in 1954 and continued with the ongoing building of nuclear power plants, the enactment of numerous pieces of legislation such as the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, and the implementation of countless policies which have guided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy in the regulation and growth of nuclear energy companies. This includes, but is not limited to, regulations of nuclear facilities, waste storage, decommissioning of weapons-grade materials, uranium mining, and funding for nuclear companies, along with an increase in power plant building. Both legislation and bureaucratic regulations of nuclear energy in the United States have been shaped by scientific research, private industries' wishes, and public opinion, which has shifted over time and as a result of different nuclear disasters.
Talen Energy is an independent power producer founded in 2015. It was formed when the competitive power generation business of PPL Corporation was spun off and immediately combined with competitive generation businesses owned by private equity firm Riverstone Holdings. Following these transactions, PPL shareholders owned 65% of Talen's common stock and affiliates of Riverstone owned 35%. As a condition for FERC approval Talen agreed to divest approximately 1,300 megawatts of generating assets in the PJM Interconnection Region to mitigate FERC's competitiveness concerns. On December 6, 2016, Riverstone Holdings completed the purchase of the remaining 65% of Talen's common stock, making it a privately owned company.
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.
