Grand Gulf Nuclear Station

Grand Gulf Nuclear Station is a nuclear power station with one operational GE BWR reactor (General Electric boiling water reactor). It lies on a 2,100 acres (850 ha) site near Port Gibson, Mississippi. The site is wooded and contains two lakes. The plant has a 520-foot natural draft cooling tower. As of January 2023, the plant employs 675 people.[2]

This article is about Grand Gulf Nuclear Generating Station. For other uses, see Grand Gulf.
Grand Gulf Nuclear Generating Station
Official nameGrand Gulf Nuclear Station
CountryUnited States
LocationClaiborne County, near Port Gibson, Mississippi
Coordinates32°0′26″N 91°2′52″W
StatusOperational
Construction beganMay 4, 1974 (1974-05-04)
Commission dateJuly 1, 1985
Construction cost$6.325 billion (2007 USD)[1]
Owner(s)Entergy (90%)
Cooperative Energy (10%)
Operator(s)Entergy Nuclear
Nuclear power station
Reactor typeBWR
Reactor supplierGeneral Electric
Cooling towers1 × Natural Draft
1 × Forced Draft Auxiliary
Cooling sourceMississippi River
Thermal capacity1 × 4408 MWth
Power generation
Units operational1 × 1443 MW
Make and modelBWR-6 (Mark 3)
Units cancelled1 × 1250 MWe BWR-6
1 × 1520 MWe ESBWR
Nameplate capacity1443 MW
Capacity factor93.1% (2021)
84.50% (lifetime)
Annual net output11,772 GWh (2021)
External links
WebsiteGrand Gulf Nuclear Station

Grand Gulf's reactor is the most powerful in the US and the 7th most powerful in the world,[3] [4] with a core power of 4408 MWth[5] yielding a nominal gross electrical output of 1443 MWe.

Grand Gulf is operated by Entergy, which also owns 90% of the station through their subsidiary, System Energy Resources Inc. The other 10% is owned by Cooperative Energy.

Units 2 and 3

Adjacent to the operating Grand Gulf station, is an unfinished concrete structure that was to be the containment for Unit 2, a twin to the existing Unit 1. In December 1979, staggered by construction cost, Entergy (then called Middle South Utilities) stopped work on Unit 2.

On September 22, 2005, it was announced that Grand Gulf had been selected as the site for a GE ESBWR reactor. For details, see Nuclear Power 2010 Program. This was to be Unit 3.

In 2007, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an Early Site Permit (ESP) to Grand Gulf.[6] In 2008, Entergy and NuStart submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) application for a potential new nuclear unit at the Grand Gulf.[7]

On January 9, 2009, Entergy indefinitely postponed work towards the license and construction of Unit 3. In September 2015 the NRC withdrew the COL for the ESBWR unit, at the request of Entergy.[8]

Electricity Production
Generation (MWh) of Grand Gulf Nuclear Generating Station[9]
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual (Total)
2001 946,566 827,395 943,421 373,230 769,005 886,934 921,701 577,561 892,961 939,180 909,769 936,159 9,923,882
2002 942,615 850,731 937,821 898,970 920,634 774,045 929,756 881,648 324,094 733,226 909,649 956,270 10,059,459
2003 913,462 834,804 958,592 725,835 939,541 910,173 945,844 943,499 905,510 951,060 918,863 955,273 10,902,456
2004 954,299 630,422 204,870 926,499 947,366 917,959 945,455 944,332 920,171 951,935 927,442 962,016 10,232,766
2005 960,091 764,933 962,587 925,347 948,825 915,437 941,316 926,900 517,061 352,002 926,522 936,825 10,077,846
2006 953,661 867,326 859,264 846,413 600,537 836,421 868,533 867,998 905,894 951,101 923,926 937,512 10,418,586
2007 949,348 853,823 470,576 478,499 740,277 908,575 945,593 770,366 434,552 946,499 916,109 944,567 9,358,784
2008 792,280 708,874 811,788 904,539 944,431 904,995 938,324 927,518 617,447 13,971 880,470 952,153 9,396,790
2009 947,301 859,709 937,261 903,564 935,134 897,343 925,096 925,987 891,679 935,897 912,378 927,166 10,998,515
2010 927,032 838,099 720,744 641,334 103,232 899,621 927,176 915,585 902,584 932,927 903,900 931,007 9,643,241
2011 916,397 811,767 905,744 861,059 904,637 794,883 878,144 887,012 872,837 886,627 734,647 883,035 10,336,789
2012 896,989 536,825 -7,775 -6,737 -10,447 271,292 899,636 971,194 1,000,457 1,077,666 996,207 670,827 7,296,134
2013 311,378 954,564 1,069,948 1,030,120 1,066,904 983,340 978,908 878,096 990,253 697,135 850,641 1,053,222 10,864,509
2014 1,008,823 292,730 138,072 778,925 1,032,810 937,411 967,125 965,377 994,435 1,048,219 1,035,260 1,052,996 10,252,183
2015 1,029,720 586,059 1,057,543 974,571 1,047,768 971,407 1,030,521 1,004,044 967,470 1,049,136 986,999 1,009,350 11,714,588
2016 1,013,775 611,185 3,560 964,026 1,064,006 704,577 294,454 1,045,677 236,051 -13,622 -12,913 -13,504 5,897,272
2017 -13,018 725,378 994,890 360,908 1,033,296 973,559 861,051 796,529 -14,481 844,226 485,966 316,344 7,364,648
2018 502,875 649,325 1,035,677 189,417 -5,898 -6,427 129,490 867,532 725,282 1,051,752 1,004,849 775,596 6,919,470
2019 1,050,888 802,699 1,029,762 944,497 714,750 1,018,894 1,044,043 1,045,968 944,263 1,056,678 511,651 868,421 11,032,514
2020 1,036,228 746,816 -4,509 -7,062 409 772,960 935,853 297,805 880,380 868,888 145,989 797,177 6,470,934
2021 1,037,173 961,328 1,056,392 647,047 969,219 1,015,771 1,020,360 1,045,211 989,338 1,001,905 1,030,001 998,313 11,772,058
2022 1,059,368 871,081 0 0 910,407 1,004,532 165,636 646,908 1,012,974 1,021,251 6,692,157
2023

Surrounding population

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.[10]

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Grand Gulf was 6,572, a decrease of 18.6 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 321,400, a decrease of 0.4 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Port Gibson (5 miles to city center), Vicksburg (25 miles).[11] Alcorn State University is 25 miles southwest of the plant.

Seismic risk

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Grand Gulf was 1 in 83,333, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[12][13]

Release of low levels of tritium into Mississippi River

After heavy rains in late April 2011, workers were pumping standing water collected in the abandoned, never-completed Unit 2 turbine building into the Mississippi River. Detectors sounded alarms at the presence of tritium in the water, and the pumping was stopped. The accidental release was reported to the Mississippi Health Department and the NRC. As of the dates of the news reports, it was unknown both how much tritium had entered the river and how the tritium had collected in the standing water, given that Unit 2 was not an operational reactor and had never been completed. It is unknown how much tritium entered the river because samples were not taken at the leak time. The NRC is investigating to find the source of the leak.[14][15][16]

Tritium is a very low level beta emitter with an approximate half-life of 12.3 years and it cannot penetrate the outer dead layer of skin. The main concern with this isotope is inhalation or ingestion.[17]

See also

Notes
  1. "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. "Grand Gulf Nuclear Station | Entergy Nuclear | We Power Life". www.entergy-nuclear.com. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  3. "Nuclear Safety: Unusual Event at Grand Gulf & What It Means - Nuclear Energy Info". Nuclear Energy, Reactor and Radiation Facts. Fairewinds Energy Education. 2021-01-13. Archived from the original on 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  4. "Global nuclear reactors by gross capacity 2020".
  5. "Approved applications for EPU". U.S. NRC. 2012-09-25. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  6. "Second US site gains new build permit". World Nuclear News. 2007-03-28. Archived from the original on 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  7. "New COL filed; other US applications progressing". World Nuclear News. 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  8. "US Entergy formally drops ESBWR application". Nuclear Engineering International. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  9. "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  10. "NRC: Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear Power Plants". Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
  11. Bill Dedman, Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors, NBC News, April 14, 2011 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42555888 Accessed May 1, 2011.
  12. Bill Dedman, "What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk," NBC News, March 17, 2011 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42103936 Accessed April 19, 2011.
  13. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2011-04-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. Associated Press via Picayune Item, "Grand Gulf checks leak of tritium to Miss. River", May 11, 2011 "Grand Gulf checks leak of tritium to Miss. River » State News » the Picayune Item". Archived from the original on 2012-03-18. Retrieved 2011-05-12. Accessed May 12, 2011
  15. "Tritium released by Grand Gulf still not measured", Sun Herald, May 11, 2011 http://www.sunherald.com/2011/05/09/3096784/tritium-released-by-grand-gulf.html Archived 2011-05-18 at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 12, 2011
  16. "Radioactive water released into river at Grand Gulf", Natchez Democrat, May 4, 2011 http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2011/05/04/radioactive-water-released-into-river-at-grand-gulf/ Accessed May 11, 2011
  17. "Radiation Safety Tools & Resources | Yale Environmental Health & Safety". ehs.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
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