Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2016) |
Marble Hill Nuclear Power Station was an unfinished nuclear power plant in Saluda Township, Jefferson County, near Hanover, Indiana, USA. In 1984, the Public Service Company of Indiana announced it was abandoning the half-finished nuclear power plant, on which $2.5 billion had already been spent.
History
Construction at Marble Hill began in 1977 and ended in 1984, when the
Long before 1984, Marble Hill had been a controversial enterprise. During 1978 and 1979, regional Ohio Valley environmental advocacy group The Paddlewheel Alliance staged two non-violent "occupations" of the PSI property.[1] As ongoing local support dwindled, Marble Hill's fate rested with Indiana's state government, and PSI sought state funding guarantees for Construction Work in Progress (CWIP).
Eventually, PSI announced it had to abandon Marble Hill because of an overwhelming increase in costs and a shortage of funds to finish construction.[2] In October 1985, PSI staged an auction for roughly $8 million worth of already purchased reactor hardware.[3]
Transmission lines
PSI planned to connect the nuclear plant to its network via a pair of 765 kV power lines and by looping in an existing, nearby 345 kV power line. The original plan included a 765 kV line to the existing Columbus substation, just south of Columbus, Indiana, and another 765 kV line to be built to a new substation near Rushville. However, plans for the Marble-Hill-to-Rush 765 kV power line were replaced with plans for a 765 kV link to American Electric Power's Jefferson Station, near Madison (and Clifty Creek Power Plant). Presumably, they would benefit PSI since the AEP Jefferson-Dumont 765 kV power line included an intermediate PSI interconnection substation near Greentown, Indiana.
Transmission line construction began before the plant was completed, but was halted before wires could be strung. For many years, the guyed-V 765 towers stood without wires, until they were purchased by AEP to replace structures on the Jefferson-Dumont line that were destroyed by cascading line failure from an ice storm in the early 1990s.
Description
The two signature containment buildings which would have housed two 1130 MWe
Current status
Marble Hill is currently owned by an undisclosed Michigan-based company and under demolition with a contract from MCM Management Corp. Since 2008, the facility was undergoing continued demolition, in which the Fuel Handling building (the smaller square building between the two containment buildings) was slowly being torn away and scrapped. In August 2010, one of the containment buildings was completely demolished, and the other had its reactor core removed, and was under heavy demolition. By May 2011, most Marble Hill structures were either demolished, or under demolition. As of December 2011, both containment domes had been demolished, with approximately 2/3 of the cooling stacks standing. The control building was also under heavy demolition.
References
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19781009&id=AIIpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tWUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3133,1137143%7Cwork= Lewiston Evening Journal
- ^ "HALF-BUILT INDIANA NUCLEAR PLANT ABANDONED AT A $2.5 BILLION COST". The New York Times. 17 January 1984.
- Associated Press News.
- Time Magazine: "Nuclear Fissures" Monday, Jan. 30, 1984.
- UPI, The New York Times Business page: "Plan Rejected For Marble Hill", June 19, 1984 10-K SEC Filing, filed by PSI ENERGY INC on 3/27/1997
Further reading
- Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant at Abandoned
- Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant at Abandoned Indiana
- Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant demolition at Vanishing Point
- Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant video at MadisonIndiana.us