Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station
| Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station | |
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Hope Creek NPP, image courtesy of the NRC
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 Location of Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Salem County, New Jersey
Location of Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Salem County, New Jersey
Location of Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Salem County, New Jersey
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| Country | United States |
| Location | Lower Alloways Creek |
| Coordinates | 39°28′04″N 75°32′17″W / 39.46778°N 75.53806°WCoordinates: 39°28′04″N 75°32′17″W / 39.46778°N 75.53806°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | 1974–1986 |
| Commission date | December 20, 1986 |
| Operator(s) | PSEG |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | GE-4 |
| Reactor supplier | General Electric |
| Cooling source | Delaware River |
| Cooling towers | 1 |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 1 x 1059 MW |
| Make and model | 1 GE 25kV |
| Nameplate capacity | 1059 MW |
| Annual output | 8,104 GWh |
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Website Hope Creek |
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Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station is a thermal nuclear power plant located in Lower Alloways Creek Township, in Salem County, New Jersey, United States, on the same site as the two-unit Salem Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is owned and operated by PSEG Nuclear LLC. It has one unit (one reactor), a boiling water reactor (BWR) manufactured by GE. The complex was designed for two units, but the second unit was cancelled in 1981. It has a generating capacity of 1,268 MWe. The plant came online on July 25, 1986, licensed to operate until 2026. In 2009, PSEG applied for a 20-year license renewal, which it received in 2011. With its combined output of 3,572 megawatts, the Salem-Hope Creek complex is the largest nuclear generating facility in the Eastern United States and the second largest nationwide.
Hope Creek is one of four licensed nuclear power reactors in New Jersey. The others are the two units at the adjacent Salem plant, and the one unit at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. As of January 1, 2005, New Jersey ranked 10th among the 31 states with nuclear capacity for total MWe generated. In 2003, nuclear electricity generated over one half of the electricity in the state.
Hope Creek is a boiling water reactor (BWR) unlike its neighbors at the nearby Salem Nuclear Plant which are pressurized water reactors (PWR.)
Hope Creek's reactor is used to produce electricity. The plant's huge natural-draft cooling tower can be seen from many miles away including from the Delaware Memorial Bridge, as well as from the observation deck on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place in Philadelphia on clear days. This cooling tower serves only Hope Creek's single reactor. The neighboring Salem units utilize once-through cooling with no cooling tower.
A unique feature of Hope Creek is its cylindrical reactor building complete with a dome which makes it appear similar to a pressurized water reactor containment building which is not typical of boiling water reactors. However this similarity is limited to appearance. Like other BWRs, the actual containment vessel for the reactor is a separate drywell/torus structure enclosed within the reactor building, but structurally separate. The outer reactor building serves as secondary containment and houses many of the reactor's safety systems.
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