The Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station occupies a site near Jenkinsville, South Carolina, in Fairfield County, South Carolina, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Columbia. The nuclear power station includes the decommissioned experimental Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor (CVTR) unit, just outside the site of the old town of Parr, SC. The CVTR was a 17 MWe, heavy water reactor. Its cooling water is supplied by the Monticello Reservoir (not to be confused with the Monticello Nuclear Generating Station in Minnesota), which is also used by a pumped storage (hydroelectric) unit. The plant utilizes a once-through cooling system.
This plant has one Westinghouse 3-loop Pressurized Water Reactor, which has received approval of a 20-year license extension, taking the license expiration of Unit 1 from 2022 to 2042. The plant is also in the process of constructing two Westinghouse AP1000 plants, which had been scheduled to go into service in 2020, but had problems since construction began in the late 2000s and in March 2017 when designer and contractor Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy. On July 31, 2017, after an extensive review into the costs of constructing Units 2 and 3, South Carolina Electric and Gas decided to stop construction of the reactors and will file a Petition for Approval of Abandonment with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina.
The plant is named after Virgil Clifton Summer, the former Chairman and CEO of SCE&G.
Video Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station
Unit 1
V. C. Summer Unit 1 is a Westinghouse 3-loop Pressurized Water Reactor. The reactor first began commercial operation on January 1, 1984. The plant cost $1.3 billion to construct - 24 percent less per kilowatt than the average of 13 nuclear plants constructed over the same time period.
Unit 1 generates 2,900 MWt (Thermal Megawatts) of heat, supplying a net output of 966 MWe (Electric Megawatts) of electricity to the grid.
In 2001, the Summer unit operated at 79.9 percent of capacity, producing 6.76 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. In 2007 it produced 8.48 billion kilowatt-hours, increasing its capacity factor to 100.2 percent.
About two-thirds (66.7 percent) of the Summer plant is owned by its operator, the South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), a subsidiary of the SCANA corporation. The remaining 33.3 percent is owned by the South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper).
Maps Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station
Units 2 and 3
On March 27, 2008, South Carolina Electric & Gas applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) to build two 1,100 MW AP1000 pressurized water reactors at the site. On May 27, 2008, SCE&G and Santee Cooper announced an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract had been reached with Westinghouse. Costs were estimated to be approximately $9.8 billion for both AP1000 units, plus transmission facility and financing costs. The operators are filing an application to increase customers bills by $1.2 billion (2.5%) during the construction period to partially finance capital costs.
In March 2012, the NRC approved the construction license of the two proposed reactors at the Summer plant. As with the license approval for the Vogtle plant, NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko cast the lone dissenting vote, saying "I continue to believe that we should require that all Fukushima-related safety enhancements are implemented before these new reactors begin operating". The reactors were expected to go on-line in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The construction of Unit 2 began officially on March 9, 2013, with the pouring of concrete for the basemat. The placement of the first concrete was completed on March 11, 2013. Unit 2 is the first reactor to start construction in the US in 30 years. First concrete for Unit 3 was completed on November 4, 2013.
In October 2014, a delay of at least one year and extra costs of $1.2 billion were announced, largely due to fabrication delays. Unit 2 was expected to be substantially complete in late 2018 or early 2019, with unit 3 about a year later.
On July 23, 2015, V.C. Summer Unit 2 reached a landmark milestone with the successful placement of the CA-01 module, one of the largest, heaviest, and most complicated modules within the Nuclear Island, also referred to as a super module because it was so large that huge submodules had to be shipped from the manufacturer and final assembly was completed on site in the twelve-story Module Assembly Building. Installation of CA-01 was long delayed due to both regulatory and production hurdles related to the module. It is the first of the US AP1000 reactors under construction to achieve placement of this critical module, beating Vogtle Unit 3 to this milestone, and allowing other construction activities in the Nuclear Island to progress that could not proceed until the module was in place. CA-01 is a large structural module that forms the internal structures of some compartments within the Containment Vessel, including the Steam Generator compartments, Reactor Vessel cavity, and Refueling Canal. The CA-01 Module is the heaviest module on site, weighing 1,200 tons, or 2.4 million pounds. Because of how much it weighs, lifting and placing the CA-01 module into the Unit 2 Nuclear Island resulted in the heaviest lift for the V.C. Summer construction project to date.
Unlike Unit 1, which utilizes a once-through cooling system and discharges its heat directly to the Monticello reservoir, Units 2 and 3 will have cooling towers. The project will be using mechanical-draft multi-cell cooling towers due to their lower visual profile as they are low to the ground compared to the tall natural draft towers used at many nuclear plants with the main drawback being that cell towers take up more ground space and require AC driven fans increasing the total of the plant's own electrical load. The large main cooling towers will cool the Circulating Water System, which removes heat from the main condenser, and serves as the power generation main heat sink while the plant is online. In addition, smaller cooling towers will serve as the heatsink for the Service Water System, which removes the decay heat from the reactor when it is shut down as well as process heat from various large pump motors and other components in the nuclear (primary) side of the plant. None of the cooling towers are safety critical in an AP1000 design, as emergency cooling is provided by very large tanks of water both inside and outside of the containment building, ensuring that the plant can be safely shutdown and cooled for at least 72 hours, with no operator action required, in the highly unlikely event of an accident.
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) owns 60% of the new units, and South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper) owns 40%.
In early 2017 Westinghouse Electric Company revised in-service dates to April 2020 and December 2020 for units 2 and 3.
In March 2017, Westinghouse Electric Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of $9 billion of losses from its two U.S. nuclear construction projects. SCANA considered its options for the project, and ultimately decided to abandon the project in July 2017. SCANA had determined that completing just Unit 2 and abandoning Unit 3 could be feasible and was leaning toward that option internally, however the project died when minority partner Santee Cooper's board voted to cease all construction and SCANA could not find another partner to take their place. The state governor has announced that the state government is currently seeking a way to revive the project with some potential options including the selling of Santee Cooper as well as trying to obtain federal support. On August 15 SCANA announced that it was withdrawing its request to officially abandon the project with the state PSC. While it made clear that there is currently not a plan to resume construction, they are suspending the regulatory abandonment of the project to allow the state's revival efforts to play out before closing the door on the project permanently.
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.
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Summer was 17,599, an increase of 26.2 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 1,187,554, an increase of 14.3 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Columbia (30 miles to city center).
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 Summer was 1 in 26,316, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.
Reactor data
The Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station consists of one operational reactor, with two additional units under construction.
References
External links
- "Summer Pressurized Water Reactor". Operating Nuclear Power Reactors. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). February 14, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
- "SCE&G Units 2 & 3 New Nuclear Construction Photo Gallery on Flickr". Press Releases and Photographic Media. SCANA Corporation (SCE&G).
- Final Safety Evaluation Report for Combined Licenses for Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Units 2 and 3: Docket Nos. 52-027 and 52-028 Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Rising Costs and Delays Doom New Nuclear Reactors in South Carolina Congressional Research Service
Source of article : Wikipedia
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