Byron Nuclear Generating Station
| Byron Nuclear Generating Station | |
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Byron Nuclear Generating Station
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 Location of Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Rockvale Township, Ogle County, near Byron, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 42°4′27″N 89°16′55″W / 42.07417°N 89.28194°WCoordinates: 42°4′27″N 89°16′55″W / 42.07417°N 89.28194°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | Unit 1: 16 September 1985 Unit 2: 2 August 1987 |
| Construction cost | $4.5 billion |
| Operator(s) | Exelon |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | Pressurized water reactor |
| Reactor supplier | Westinghouse |
| Cooling source | Rock River |
| Cooling towers | 2 |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 2 |
| Nameplate capacity | 2452 MW |
| Capacity factor | 88.2% |
| Annual output | 18959 GW·h |
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Website www.exeloncorp.com |
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The Byron Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located in Ogle County, Illinois, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the Rock River. The reactor buildings were constructed by Commonwealth Edison and house two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2, which first began operation in September 1985 and August 1987 respectively. The plant was built for Commonwealth Edison and is currently owned and operated by its parent company, Exelon Corporation.
The plant provides electricity to northern Illinois and the city of Chicago. In 2005 it generated on average about 2,450 MWe, enough power to supply about 2 million average American homes. The station employs over 600 people, mostly from Ogle and Winnebago Counties and features two prominent 495-foot (150.9 m) cooling towers. The Byron plant has been subject to some controversy with respect to a lawsuit in 1981 with concerns over tritium contamination in groundwater. Tritium contamination at Byron and other Illinois nuclear power plants led the state of Illinois to pass legislation requiring plants to report such contamination to the state within 24 hours. Plant security was increased after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Byron was 25,679, an increase of 5.9 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 1,273,771, an increase of 14.5 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Rockford (17 miles to city center).
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