River Bend Nuclear Generating Station

River Bend Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power station on a 3,300-acre (1,300 ha) site near St. Francisville, Louisiana in West Feliciana Parish, approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Baton Rouge. The station has one sixth generation General Electric[2] boiling water reactor that has a nominal gross electric output of about 1010 MWe. Commercial operation began on June 16, 1986. In 2003, owners applied and were approved for a power upgrade of approximately 52 megawatts in 2003. The nameplate capacity is 974 MW.[3]

River Bend Nuclear Generating Station
Official nameRiver Bend Nuclear Station
CountryUnited States
LocationWest Feliciana Parish, near St. Francisville, Louisiana
Coordinates30°45.4′N 91°20′W
StatusOperational
Construction beganMarch 25, 1977 (1977-03-25)
Commission dateJune 16, 1986
Construction cost$7.198 billion (2007 USD)[1]
Owner(s)Entergy Gulf States
Operator(s)Entergy Nuclear
Nuclear power station
Reactor typeBWR
Reactor supplierGeneral Electric
Cooling towers4 × Mechanical Draft[lower-alpha 1]
Cooling sourceMississippi River
Thermal capacity1 × 3091 MWth
Power generation
Units operational1 × 974 MW
Make and modelBWR-6 (Mark 3 Containment)
Units cancelled1 × 934 MW
1 × 1520 MW ESBWR
Nameplate capacity974 MW
Capacity factor87.02% (2021)
81.90% (lifetime)
Annual net output7441 GWh (2021)
External links
WebsiteRiver Bend Nuclear Station

River Bend is operated by Entergy, which owns 100% of the station through its subsidiary, Entergy Gulf States Louisiana. The plant's operating license will expire in 2045.[4]

The Site Vice President is Kent Scott, the General Manager of Plant Operations is Bonnie Bryant, and the Senior Operations Manager is Danny James. The station employs 870 full time employees.[3]

Units 2 and 3

The River Bend site was originally designed to have two identical units. Construction on Unit 1 began in 1973, but Unit 2 barely broke ground, with only the containment base mat and some underground piping installed. In 1984, plans to construct Unit 2 were officially abandoned.[5]

On September 25, 2008, Entergy filed a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for Unit 3, a new nuclear reactor at River Bend. The 1550 MWe Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) was the selected design.[6][7] The reactor's cost was estimated at $6.2 billion.[8]

On January 9, 2009, Entergy indefinitely postponed work towards the license and construction of Unit 3.

Electricity Production
Generation (MWh) of River Bend Nuclear Station[9]
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual (Total)
2001 714,084 650,382 748,010 463,174 736,871 698,777 728,459 732,547 535,261 322,474 721,677 748,489 7,800,205
2002 748,229 674,147 747,157 720,092 621,842 710,136 676,429 736,760 643,798 738,648 716,887 733,393 8,467,518
2003 739,521 542,471 306,254 356,196 729,601 695,523 727,359 726,653 639,513 728,573 711,801 737,904 7,641,369
2004 722,306 688,909 732,144 706,090 694,625 698,129 714,758 642,269 690,940 304,074 161,989 669,813 7,426,046
2005 689,187 415,590 575,690 708,083 711,891 507,585 661,641 708,425 683,677 716,629 707,515 722,774 7,808,687
2006 732,717 376,317 729,142 448,200 389,018 672,088 716,291 720,271 701,555 602,736 657,058 720,141 7,465,534
2007 725,147 661,186 711,238 549,766 418,966 426,290 723,145 716,879 598,654 579,550 422,760 650,988 7,184,569
2008 110,735 -8,132 342,423 712,110 720,704 671,406 727,695 718,214 153,794 735,665 716,106 733,145 6,333,865
2009 739,478 661,218 732,687 709,686 725,329 696,111 723,627 715,246 422,217 270,360 703,396 734,015 7,833,370
2010 735,775 658,333 715,171 708,270 728,688 683,304 697,143 599,913 695,580 732,733 672,628 735,625 8,363,163
2011 325,685 327,426 729,247 699,986 728,598 680,655 719,969 726,103 696,843 734,596 712,191 605,146 7,686,445
2012 727,099 686,985 720,502 681,706 276,570 428,340 724,571 721,835 694,129 723,125 708,300 712,012 7,805,174
2013 723,821 359,849 223,352 695,653 718,352 575,023 720,701 719,180 699,175 715,058 708,754 727,725 7,586,643
2014 726,806 656,717 727,282 694,877 721,252 694,172 712,122 705,345 683,474 503,828 705,399 623,720 8,154,994
2015 646,588 489,514 15,181 687,010 693,828 409,744 662,122 717,646 684,848 726,435 569,253 613,826 6,915,995
2016 180,432 280,102 613,706 675,624 721,754 318,997 714,545 711,497 695,187 716,159 700,659 726,407 7,055,069
2017 613,498 -6,913 381,761 677,357 705,398 570,939 670,332 597,486 668,879 717,886 704,179 731,480 7,032,282
2018 132,451 356,815 521,005 705,899 699,877 670,282 719,900 630,772 665,040 696,199 489,269 712,487 6,999,996
2019 587,387 473,138 490,473 -7,647 288,109 455,492 720,130 715,583 697,541 569,050 701,601 730,076 6,420,933
2020 707,060 674,073 725,431 674,267 724,229 681,322 667,703 586,010 663,112 709,063 460,145 715,955 7,988,370
2021 718,718 463,730 158,844 547,655 699,238 695,666 717,662 685,288 643,759 720,964 665,034 725,317 7,441,875
2022 730,195 651,300 726,737 700,089 713,570 691,376 712,095 706,957 690,584 710,635 660,315 611,865 8,305,718
2023 542,158 158,647 0 0 0 270,825 670,805

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 River Bend was 23,466, an increase of 11.1 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 951,103, an increase of 11.2 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Baton Rouge (25 miles to city center).[11]

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 River Bend was 1 in 40,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[12][13]

Safety record

Unlike the Waterford Nuclear Generating Station downriver in Hahnville, River Bend continued operation throughout Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The plant was shut down during Hurricane Gustav in 2008.[8]

See also

Notes
  1. 4 × concentric low-profile concrete cooling towers, each with 8 × individual induced-draft cooling cells, for a total of 32 induced-draft cooling cells.

References
  1. "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. "River Bend Nuclear Power Plant, Louisiana". U.S. Department of Energy. September 5, 2008. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  3. "River Bend Station | Entergy Nuclear | We Power Life". www.entergy-nuclear.com. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  4. "River Bend Station, Unit 1". NRC Web. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  5. Nuclear Power Generation and Fuel Cycle Report 1997 p. 66.
  6. Mowbray, Rebecca (September 26, 2008). "Entergy seeks OK to expand La. plant". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  7. "River Bend Station, Unit 3 Application". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. September 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  8. DiSavino, Scott (September 22, 2008). "Entergy La. River Bend reactor starts to exit outage". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  9. "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  10. "Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness at Nuclear Power Plants". Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  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)
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