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Reactor sets record
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009
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A scheduled outage at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 ended a 692-day run of continuous operation, something plant-owner Constellation Energy says is a world record. Unit 2 was taken offline on Sunday, Feb. 22, for refueling, which takes place every other year.
The continuous run of 692 days, five hours and 42 minutes set a world record for continuous generation by a pressurized-water nuclear reactor, narrowly breaking the previous 689-day record held by Three Mile Island Unit 1 in New York State, according to a press release.
Brew Barron, chief nuclear officer and executive vice president for generation, credited plant employees for setting the record despite the financial uncertainties of the past year.
"I just want to express my appreciation to the employees for doing such a great job across the fleet. With what occurred last year, the financial markets collapsing last fall, it led to the first proposed acquisition by MidAmerican Energy Holdings, and now the proposal with [French energy company] EDF, a lot of distractions to the Constellation employees, especially Constellation nuclear employees, they've stayed focused on safe and reliable operations of our entire nuclear fleet," Barron said.
In fall 2006, Unit 1 received a "white finding" from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission after a test tripped a circuit breaker in the wiring connecting the reactor's emergency generator to its cooling fans and other supporting equipment, an NRC spokesman said at the time. The emergency generators are required to shut the plant down safely if power from the electrical grid is lost.
While the finding triggered a safety inspection and increased oversight by the regulatory body, the NRC has since declared the problem resolved.
Barron also touted the capacity factor, a comparison of rated capacity and actual output, of Constellation's nuclear fleet, comprising Calvert Cliffs and two reactors in New York State.
"I really believe that our generating record, with a 94.7-percent capacity factor, is going to be the highest capacity factor of all the fleets out there," Barron said. "… All those [energy companies] who have tried to brag have listed numbers lower than ours, so I'm assuming those who didn't talk about it at all had numbers even lower that that. … I hope the community is proud to have Calvert Cliffs in the community."
The capacity factor is an important indication of the reliability of a generating plant, according to Constellation spokeswoman Maureen Brown.
"It's really a testament to how well-run the plants are," she said. "It means that you've done a great job on maintenance; it means you've been proactive in anticipating and addressing operational and safety issues. In sports, they would say it means you're on top of your game, but to think that 24-hours a day these plants operated almost 95 percent of the time, they were available to operate. That's amazing."
