U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Already Closed or Closing

[Eko]

U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Already Closed or Closing

"Everyone knows that reactors can’t run forever, but many plant operators and utilities in the past three years have made the decision to end operations at nuclear plants before their licenses expire. Unfortunately, more are expected to be on this list in the near future..

Reasons for shutting down early range from low natural gas prices to high repair costs. Diablo Canyon was not included because it will close in 2025 when the operating licenses expire."

Here are some of the reasons they are closing down permanently.

"replacing two steam generators in 2009 when engineers discovered a separation of concrete within the reactor vessel’s containment shield. Additional damage was found in two other areas of the containment building. The utility decided the price tag of up to $3.43 billion was too much to repair the damage."

"could not find a buyer for the plant after low natural gas prices made running the plant uneconomical."

"Unit 2 was taken offline in January 2012 for a planned outage. Unit 3 was taken offline at the end of the month after station operators detected a leak in a steam generator tube. Inspections of both units found the tubes were vibrating in generators in both units. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had replaced all of the steam generators. Southern California Edison decided to focus on finding replacement generation instead of spending money on long-term repair and restart costs."

"Economic factors related to low natural gas prices led to the plant’s closure."

"The Omaha Public Power District Board of Directors said it was not fiscally able to run the smallest operating nuclear plant in North America. "

"needed to clear the PJM’s 2019-2020 capacity auction to keep operating, which it did not."
https://www.power-eng.com/articles/slideshow/2016/08/u-s-nuclear-power-plants-already-closed-or-closing.html

One could argue that Nuclear is good or bad, I am not doing that. The reality of the situation is that Nuclear plants cant compete in today's energy marketplace without massive taxpayer bailouts.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Real concerned about how the owners of the plant do the closing process.

It's not that one can exactly turn off the lights and lock the front door.

[hunter]

2. I'm sure that's good news for the fracking industry...

...or something.

[Eko]

4. Maybe so.

But as I said, "The reality of the situation is that Nuclear plants cant compete in today's energy marketplace without massive taxpayer bailouts."

[JayhawkSD]

3. Not a particularly accurate description.

"Unit 2 was taken offline in January 2012 for a planned outage. Unit 3 was taken offline at the end of the month after station operators detected a leak in a steam generator tube. Inspections of both units found the tubes were vibrating in generators in both units. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had replaced all of the steam generators. Southern California Edison decided to focus on finding replacement generation instead of spending money on long-term repair and restart costs."

Steam generators were replaced at the end of their normal life spans. Southern California Edison called for a redesign of tube arrangement, eliminating tube support plates in order to add a few more tubes, to achieve increase in energy production of less than 3%. It turned out the support plates were actually supporting the tubes (wow, who could have guessed that?) and preventing them from vibrating and rubbing against each other. In the process of rubbing against each other without the support plates, they were rubbing holes in the tubes.

Utterly predictable design error, which is why Westinghouse had put the support plates there in the original steam generators. Lack of the support plates rendered the steam generators unusable. Due to Southern California Edison having approved the redesign, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries could not be held liable for the error.

[nikki haley]

5. U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Already Closed or Closing

why is that a good thing?

[Eko]

6. As I said.

"One could argue that Nuclear is good or bad, I am not doing that. The reality of the situation is that Nuclear plants cant compete in today's energy marketplace without massive taxpayer bailouts."