Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant
| Crystal River Nuclear Plant | |
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The power plant complex of Crystal River, on the right of the cooling towers is the nuclear reactor (Unit 3)
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 Location of Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Florida
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Crystal River, Florida |
| Coordinates | 28°57.45′N 82°41.90′W / 28.95750°N 82.69833°WCoordinates: 28°57.45′N 82°41.90′W / 28.95750°N 82.69833°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Commission date | March 13, 1977 |
| Construction cost | $400 million |
| Owner(s) | Duke Energy |
| Operator(s) | Duke Energy |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | Pressurized water reactor (PWR) |
| Reactor supplier | Babcock & Wilcox |
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Website www |
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The Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant, also called the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, or simply CR-3, is a shut down nuclear power plant located in Crystal River, Florida. The facility is currently being decommissioned and is transitioning to a SAFSTOR condition. The power plant was completed and licensed to operate in December 1976, and operated safely for 33 years until shutdown in September 2009. It was the third plant built as part of the 4,700-acre (1,900 ha) Crystal River Energy Complex (CREC) which contains a single nuclear power plant, while sharing the site with four fossil fuel power plants.
The Crystal River reactor went offline in September 2009 for refueling, OTSG replacement (once through steam generator), and 20% power up-rate outage. In preparing the containment building for making the opening to replace the two OTSG's, tendons in the containment building wall were detensioned. During the concrete removal in creating the opening workers discovered a large gap in the concrete of the containment building wall. The main cause of the gap, which further engineering analysis determined was a large delamination, was attributed to the scope and sequence of the tendon detensioning. The plant had originally been scheduled to restart in April 2011, but the project encountered a number of delays. Repairs were successful, but additional delamination began to occur in adjacent bays. After several months of analyzing options, Duke Energy senior executives announced in February 2013 Duke Energy that the Crystal River Nuclear Plant would be permanently shut down. The coal-fired units are not affected.
Crystal River was originally owned by Florida Progress Corporation (and operated by its subsidiary, Florida Power Corporation) but, in 2000, it was bought by Carolina Power & Light to form the new company, Progress Energy. Progress Energy owned 91.8% of the plant; the remainder is owned by nine municipal utilities. Effective July 2, 2012 Duke Energy purchased Progress Energy and made it a wholly owned direct unit of Duke Energy.
Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant was an operating 860 MWe, PWR (pressurized water reactor plant). There are three main barriers that protect the public from the radiation hazards associated with nuclear operations. One of those barriers is known as the containment building which houses the fuel, the reactor, and the reactor cooling system. The Crystal River containment building is a steel lined post-tensioned (see: Prestressed concrete) cylindrical concrete structure approximately 157 feet in height with an outside diameter of about 138 feet. The containment has 42- inch thick concrete walls, has a flat foundation mat and a shallow torispherical dome. Post-tensioning is achieved by utilizing an outer array of horizontal tendons immediately adjacent to an inner array of vertical tendons that are embedded in the walls about 15 inches from the outside surface.
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