St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant
| St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Location of St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Florida
|
|
| Country | United States |
| Location | Port St. Lucie, Florida |
| Coordinates | 27°20′55″N 80°14′47″W / 27.34861°N 80.24639°WCoordinates: 27°20′55″N 80°14′47″W / 27.34861°N 80.24639°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | Unit 1: March 1, 1976 Unit 2: June 10, 1983 |
| Operator(s) | Florida Power & Light |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | Pressurized water reactor |
| Reactor supplier | Combustion Engineering |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 2 x 1002 MW |
| Capacity factor | 64.9% |
| Average generation | 11,390 GWh |
|
Website www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/about_st_lucie.shtml |
|
St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant is a twin nuclear power station located on Hutchinson Island, near Port St. Lucie in St. Lucie County, Florida. Both units are Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors. Florida Power & Light commissioned the station in 1976 and continues to operate the station. Minor shares of Unit 2 are owned by the Florida Municipal Power Agency (8.81%) and the Orlando Utilities Commission (6.08%).
The plant contains two nuclear reactors in separate containment buildings. However, the plant does not have the classic hyperboloid cooling towers found at many inland reactor sites; instead, it uses nearby ocean water for coolant of the secondary system.
In 2003 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) extended the operating licenses of the St. Lucie units by twenty years, to March 1, 2036 for Unit 1 and April 6, 2043 for Unit 2.
In 2012, Extended Power Uprate modifications were completed, increasing the electric output from approximately 853 MW to 1,002 MW. The project involved replacing pipes, valves, pumps, heat exchangers, electrical transformers, and generators, some of which were original components of the plant.
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.
...
Wikipedia