When Should A Nuclear Power Plant Be Refueled?

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 05/12/15

Dr. Conca reports that the answer is as infrequently as possible, if you want to produce the most energy for the lowest cost. And infrequent it has been for the Energy Northwest nuclear power plant near Richland, Washington. The Columbia Generating Station just set a personal nuclear best on the eve of Mother Day when it began its latest refueling outage after operating for 683 days without stopping once. The world record is not much longer, i.e., 739 days set by the Illinois LaSalle 1 nuclear plant in 2006. Columbia Generating Station, operated by Energy Northwest, is the third largest electricity generator in Washington State, behind the Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph hydroelectric dams. For over 30 years,the nuclear plant has been an integral part of the Washington State low-carbon footprint, the lowest of any state in the U.S.. During this 683-day run, Columbia produced nearly 18 billion kilowatt-hours - kWhs - of electricity and operated at a capacity factor of over 98 per cent, exceeding any other source of energy in history. This run also continues five years of operations with no unplanned outages. Nuclear power plants run almost all the time, and refuel only once every two years or so. Outages typically occur in the spring or autumn when electricity demand is lowest and there is little winter heating or summer air-conditioning. The interruption of the nuclear constant stream of energy is also most easily handled by other sources during the spring such as hydroelectric. According to Brad Sawatzke, the Energy Northwest Chief Operating Officer, the lower-than-normal snowpack in the Pacific Northwest means it is important to get the nuclear plant back up and running before the summer warms up. An outage usually takes only 40 days, so once every two years means the plant operates just under 100 per cent of the time, or 98 per cent in the case of this nuclear plant.