Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station

Coordinates: 39°28′04″N 75°32′17″W / 39.46778°N 75.53806°W / 39.46778; -75.53806
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station
Natural Draft
Cooling sourceDelaware River
Thermal capacity1 × 3840 MWth
Power generation
Units operational1 × 1172 MW
Make and model
Annual net output
10,658 GWh (2017)
External links
WebsiteHope Creek Nuclear Generating Station
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata
]

Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station is a thermal

MWe
. The plant came online on July 25, 1986, licensed to operate until 2026. In 2009, PSEG applied for a 20-year license renewal,[3] which it received in 2011 to operate until 2046.[4] 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, after the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona.

Hope Creek is one of three licensed nuclear power reactors in New Jersey. The others are the two units at the adjacent Salem plant.

MWe generated. In 2021, nuclear plants generated 45% of the electricity in the state.[6]

In 2019, New Jersey began providing the state's nuclear plants Zero-Emission Certificates worth $300 million a year to keep them in service. The subsidy was ended in 2024, effective June 1, 2025, as the Inflation Reduction Act provides alternative tax credits to support clean energy.[7]

Plant features

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 in both

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal
. 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. 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.

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.[8]

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Hope Creek was 53,811, an increase of 53.3 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 5,523,010, an increase of 7.5 percent since 2000.

Cities within 50 miles:

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 Hope Creek was 1 in 357,143, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[10][11]

Gallery

  • The entire PSE&G nuclear complex as seen from Augustine Beach, Delaware
    The entire
    PSE&G nuclear complex as seen from Augustine Beach, Delaware
  • The Hope Creek portion of the complex
    The Hope Creek portion of the complex
  • View of Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant from the Delaware Memorial Bridge (I-295/US 40)
    View of Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant from the
    I-295/US 40
    )
  • Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station from Delaware River, May 2012
    Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station from Delaware River, May 2012

References

  1. ^ "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  2. PSE&G
    . Accessed September 15, 2007.
  3. World Nuclear News
    . 19 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  4. ^ Caroom, Eliot (July 20, 2011). "Hope Creek's license extended by NRC - with conditions". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  5. ^ "NRC - Licensed Facilities by Region or State - New Jersey". US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2011-03-13.
  6. ^ "Electricity Data Browser, Net generation for all sectors, New Jersey, Fuel Type-Check all, Annual, 2001–21". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  7. ^ Johnson, Tom (February 15, 2024). "BPU pulls plug on unpopular nuclear subsidy". NJ Spotlight News.
  8. ^ "NRC: Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear Power Plants". Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  9. ^ Bill Dedman, Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors, NBC News, April 14, 2011 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42555888 Accessed May 1, 2011.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "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)

External links

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