17 Sep (NucNet): The single-unit Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey is scheduled to be permanently shut down today after 49 years of commercial operation – the seventh US nuclear power plant to retire in the past five years.
The 619-MW General Electric boiling water rector unit began commercial operation on 1 December 1969, making it the oldest commercially operated nuclear power plant in the US.
Oyster Creek was previously expected to retire on 31 December 2019, but its retirement was accelerated by more than a year to coincide with the plant’s fuel and maintenance cycle.
When Oyster Creek’s initial 40-year licence expired in 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the plant a 20-year licence renewal. However, in 2010 an agreement was reached between Oyster Creek’s owner-operator Exelon and New Jersey state environmental regulators to retire the plant in 2019.
Among the factors affecting this decision were local water safety concerns and estimated costs of more than $800m to install cooling towers to meet new environmental standards.
Oyster Creek is one of four nuclear power reactors in New Jersey. The others are Salem-1 and -2 and Hope Creek-1.
Nuclear power accounted for 45% of the state’s total electricity production in 2017, according to Exelon, which operates 23 nuclear plants in the US, including Oyster Creek. Exelon said Oyster Creek alone represents 15% of the state’s total installed nuclear capacity and about 7% of total electricity production.
Eighteen nuclear plants have been shut down in the US totalling 15.87 GW of generation or 15% of total nuclear capacity.
After Oyster Creek's retirement, the US will have 98 commercially operating nuclear reactors at 59 stations. Twelve of these reactors, with a combined capacity of 11.7 gigawatts, are scheduled to retire within the next seven years.
