Duane Arnold Energy Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| NRC Region Three (Midwest) |
|---|
| Illinois |
| Braidwood Byron Clinton Dresden LaSalle County Quad Cities |
| Iowa |
| Duane Arnold |
| Michigan |
| Donald C. Cook Enrico Fermi Palisades |
| Minnesota |
| Monticello Prairie Island |
| Ohio |
| Davis-Besse Perry |
| Wisconsin |
| Kewaunee Point Beach |
|
|
| Duane Arnold Energy Center | |
| Data | |
|---|---|
| Location | Near Palo and Cedar Rapids, Iowa |
| Operator | Florida Power & Light (70%) Central Iowa Power Cooperative (20%) Corn Belt Power Cooperative (10%) |
| Built | June 1970 - 1974 |
| Start of commercial operation | February 1, 1975 |
| Reactors | |
| Reactor supplier | General Electric |
| Reactor type | Boiling water reactor |
| Power | |
| Capacity | 615 MW |
| Total power generation in 2007 | 4500 GWh |
| Status | Operating |
| Generators | General Electric 22KV |
| Other details | |
| Architect | Bechtel |
| Cost | $300 million |
| Constructors | Bechtel |
| License expires | 2014 |
| NRC region | 3 |
The Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC) (DAEC) is located on a 500 acre (2 km²) site on the west bank of the Cedar River, two miles north-northeast of Palo, Iowa, USA, or eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids. It is Iowa's only nuclear power plant.
DAEC entered operation in June 1974. It currently generates a net power output of approximately 615 megawatts using a single General Electric Mark I boiling water reactor.
The majority owner and operator is FPL Energy (70%). The Central Iowa Power Cooperative owns 20% and the Corn Belt Power Cooperative owns 10%.[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] History
In the late 1960s, Iowa Electric (later Alliant), Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative applied for a nuclear plant license with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). On June 17, 1970 a construction permit was granted and work began. The original plan was to complete construction in 40 months at an estimated cost of $250 million.
Construction was completed and the reactor reached initial criticality on March 23, 1974. The cost was $50 million over budget. Commercial operations began on February 1, 1975. The plant was licensed for 1658 MWt. However, power operations were restricted to 1593MWt (about 535 MWe) until plant modifications were completed in 1985 to utilize the full licensed capacity.
In May 2000, the NRC granted a license transfer of the DAEC to Nuclear Management Company LLC (NMC). Ownership of the plant remained with Alliant, Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative, but NMC would manage the operation of the plant.
In 2001, a power uprate was approved by the NRC to 1912 MWt. Scheduled outages since that time have added modifications to the plant that would allow the DAEC to achieve this power level. Currently, the power level is limited to 1880 MWt (about 615 MWe) and final modifications should be completed during the 2009 refueling outage.
On 27 January 2006, FPL Energy (a subsidiary of FPL Group) closed the sale transaction of 70 percent ownership from Alliant Energy-Interstate Power and Light[1]. FPL Energy also took control of the operations of the plant from NMC. FPL Energy is planning on submitting an application for license renewal to extend the plant life to 2034.
[edit] Plant Equipment
DAEC has a single GE BWR-4 reactor with a Mark I containment. 24 forced draft cooling towers utilize water from the Cedar River as a heat sink. Facilities exist to process all contaminated water onsite and the DAEC operates with a "zero release" policy to not discharge any contaminated water back to the Cedar River. The last discharge of radioactive water to the Cedar River was in 1979. Facilities exist on site for dry storage of spent fuel with capacity for the entire life of the plant (including license renewal).
[edit] Known Problems
Like all Mark I reactors, its secondary containment (a million-gallon heatsink known as the "torus") was undersized by a factor of 10 in the original design and reported in 1986 by the NRC's senior safety officer Harold Denton to be 90% likely to fail if needed for containment. Nuclear Research and Information Service The likelihood that an accident would result in the containment vessel exploding due to pressure buildup was addressed by bypassing the containment, venting the core directly to the atmosphere through the secondary containment vessel. The "torus direct vent bypass system" retrofit was installed in all 18 Mark I reactors in the late 1980's and is operated by a butterfly valve at the operators' control.
[edit] Community Impact
DAEC employs more than 500 people in the Cedar Rapids area.
Emergency warning towers are maintained by DAEC and provide a means for tornado warnings as well as plant emergencies. The Emergency Planning organization at DAEC works with local, county, and state officials to maintain an emergency plan. The emergency plan can be found in the front of area phonebooks. Drills are conducted on a regular basis in accordance with requirements from the NRC and FEMA.
Tax revenues from DAEC amount to about 1% of the total revenues for Linn County, Iowa. Pleasant Creek Reservoir, a 410 acre lake, was developed by Alliant and the Iowa Conservation Commision to provide a recreation area and act as a source of cooling water during times of low flow in the Cedar River.
While the DAEC site covers 500 acres, only a portion of that is used for power production. The remainder is leased to farmers for crop production or is left in its natural habitat.
[edit] External links
- Duane Arnold Energy Center is at coordinates Coordinates:
