Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station
Encyclopedia
Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station is a twin reactor nuclear power station located on a 3,300-acre (13 km²) site 2 miles east of Homestead, Florida
Homestead, Florida
Homestead is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States nestled between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area....

, United States, next to Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park
Biscayne National Park is a U.S. National Park located in southern Florida, due east of Homestead. The park preserves Biscayne Bay, one of the top scuba diving areas in the United States. Ninety-five percent of the park is water. In addition, the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive...

 located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

 near the southernmost edge of Miami-Dade County.

Turkey Point is owned by Florida Power & Light
Florida Power & Light
Florida Power & Light Company, the principal subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc. , commonly referred to by its initials, FPL, is a Juno Beach, Florida-based power utility which serves roughly 4.4 million customers in Florida. FPL Group holds power generation assets in more than 20 U.S...

.

Including the two nuclear plants, Turkey Point operates five power-generating units. It comprises two 400-megawatt oil/natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

-fired generation units (Units 1 and 2) and two nuclear Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...

 pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...

s (Units 3 and 4), each supplying steam to one high pressure and two low-pressure turbines with a power output rated at 693 MWe
MWE
MWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...

 for each unit.
In 2007, it added the 1,150 MW combined-cycle gas-fired Unit 5.
It serves the entire southern portion of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. With a combined capacity of 3330 MW, the site is the largest generating station in Florida and is the sixth largest power plant in the United States.

Expansion

In 2002, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

 (NRC) extended the operating licenses for both nuclear reactors from forty years to sixty.
In 2006, FPL informed the NRC that they planned to apply for new units to be built at Turkey Point. FPL filed an initial proposal for increased capacity with the Florida Public Service Commission
Florida Public Service Commission
Florida Public Service Commission is a regulatory agency serving the public of Florida by managing its public utilities, including telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, water, and wastewater....

 in October 2007.
The proposal was approved by the PSC in March 2008.

FPL also plans to spend about $1.5 billion to increase the capacity of its existing four reactors at Turkey Point and the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant
St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant
St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant is a twin nuclear power station located on Hutchinson Island, near Ft. Pierce, Florida in St. Lucie County. Both units are Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors...

 by a total of about 400 MW by 2012.

On June 30, 2009, FPL submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License
Combined Construction and Operating License
The Combined Construction and Operating License replaced the previous Draft Regulatory Guide 1145 as the licensing process for new nuclear power plants in the United States...

 (COL) application for two 1,117-MWe Westinghouse AP1000 reactors (Units 6 and 7).
FPL had considered building two 1,550-MWe GE
Gê are the people who spoke Ge languages of the northern South American Caribbean coast and Brazil. In Brazil the Gê were found in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Piaui, Mato Grosso, Goias, Tocantins, Maranhão, and as far south as Paraguay....

 ESBWR reactors.
Construction is expected to begin in 2012, with the new units going online in 2017 and 2019.
FPL estimates the total overnight cost
Overnight cost
Overnight cost is the cost of a construction project if no interest was incurred during construction, as if the project was completed "overnight." An alternate definition is: the present value cost that would have to be paid as a lump sum up front to completely pay for a construction project.The...

s of the power plants, including first fuel load, at $6.8–$9.9 billion, and the total project cost at $12.1–$17.8 billion.

Surrounding population

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

 defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16.1 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80.5 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16.1 km) of Turkey Point was 161,556, an increase of 62.8 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80.5 km) was 3,476,981, an increase of 15.1 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Miami (25 miles to city center).

Incident history

On May 8, 1974, a test was performed on all three of the Emergency Feedwater (EFW) pumps serving Unit 3 while the reactor was operating at power. Two of the pumps failed to start as a result of over-tightened packing. The third pump failed to start because of a malfunction in the turbine regulating valve pneumatic controller. (ref NRC LER 250/74-LTR) In an on-going study (ref NRC Commission Document SECY-05-0192 Attachment 2 NRC.gov) of precursors that could lead to a nuclear accident if additional failures were to have occurred, the NRC
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

 concluded (as of 24-Oct-2005) that this event at Turkey Point Unit 3 was the fifth highest ranked occurrence.

In 1992, Turkey Point was directly hit by Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...

, causing damage to a water tank and to a smokestack of one of the site's fossil-fueled units. No damage was done to the plant's containment building
Containment building
A containment building, in its most common usage, is a steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radiation to a maximum pressure in the range of 60 to 200 psi...

s.
The plant was built to withstand winds of up to 235 mph (380 km/h), greatly exceeding the maximum winds recorded by category 5 hurricane
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...

s.

2008 Florida electricity blackout

On February 26, 2008, both reactors were shut down due to the loss of off-site power during a widespread power outage in South Florida, affecting 700,000 customers.

At least 2.5 million people were without power. The blackout was initially caused by an overheated voltage switch that soon caught fire in a power substation in Miami, 23 miles away from the plant. The fire occurred at 1:08 pm which caused an automatic shutdown of the power plant. This led to a domino effect that caused outages as far north as Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, USA. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city has a population of 64,211. Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which the census bureau estimated had...

 and Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

. Power was restored by 4:30 pm. The reason this malfunction caused such widespread outages is still under investigation.

Walt Disney World, Orlando International Airport
Orlando International Airport
Orlando International Airport is a major international airport located southeast of the central business district of Orlando. It is the second busiest airport in Florida, after Miami International Airport...

, and Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...

 were among the places affected by the outage.

David Hoffman, a nuclear supervisor at Turkey Point, resigned over the incident and was subsequently sued for by Florida Power and Light for return of a bonus. Hoffman countersued, claiming he was pressured to restart the reactors while they were in a condition which in his judgement made it unsafe to do so. Upper management wanted the reactors restarted during xenon dead time
Xenon-135
Xenon-135 is an unstable isotope of xenon with a half-life of about 9.2 hours. 135Xe is a fission product of uranium and Xe-135 is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing nuclear poison , with a significant effect on nuclear reactor operation...

, which would have caused the operators at the controls to continuously step control rods to safely manage reactor output.

Florida Power and Light responded to the allegation, claiming Hoffman's suit was "self motivated".

Ecology

It is home to a wildlife preserve, helping the population of the American crocodile
American Crocodile
The American crocodile is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas. Populations occur from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of southern Mexico to South America as far as Peru and Venezuela. It also lives...

.
Turkey Point has been a contributing force to the reclassification of the American Crocodile from endangered to the less serious category of threatened.

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 Turkey Point was 1 in 100,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

Reactor data

The Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station consist of two operational reactors, two additional units are planned.
Reactor unit Reactor type Capacity Construction started Electricity grid connection Commercial operation Shutdown
Net Gross
Turkey Point-3 Westinghouse 3-loop 693 MW 729 MW 27.04.1967 02.11.1972 14.12.1972
Turkey Point-4 Westinghouse 3-loop 693 MW 729 MW 27.04.1967 21.06.1973 07.09.1973
Turkey Point-6 (planned) AP1000 1117 MW MW
Turkey Point-7 (planned) AP1000 1117 MW MW

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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