Perry Nuclear Generating Station
The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is located on a site on Lake Erie, northeast of Cleveland in North Perry, Ohio, US. The nuclear power plant is owned and operated by Energy Harbor.
The reactor is a General Electric BWR-6 boiling water reactor design, with a Mark III containment design. The original core power level of 3,579 megawatts thermal was increased to 3,758 megawatts thermal in 2000, making Perry one of the largest BWRs in the United States.
Perry was expected to close in 2021. However, the State of Ohio signed into law in July 2019 to provide incentives to keep the plant open beyond the closure date.
History
Perry was originally designed as a two-unit installation, but construction on Unit 2 was suspended in 1985 and formally cancelled in 1994. At the time of cancellation, all of the major buildings and structures for the second unit were completed, including the cooling tower. It is possible that a second unit could be constructed on the site, but current economical and regulatory conditions are not conducive to doing so.Eleven hundred acres at the Perry plant were designated in 1993 as an urban wildlife sanctuary by the National Institute for Urban Wildlife. The area has trees, shrubs, streams and ponds; and a habitat for heron, belted kingfisher, ducks and geese. The forested area is ideal for the crane-fly orchid, a rare species in Ohio. The site includes a wetland that contains spotted turtles, an endangered species in Ohio.
On March 28, 2010, there was a fire in a lubrication system for one of the water pumps that feeds water for generation of steam. Reactor power automatically lowered to 68% due to the reduction in feed water flow, and the fire was extinguished in less than three hours. Two plant fire brigade personnel were brought to a local hospital for "heat stress" following the fire. No customers lost power during this event. On February 9, 2016, the plant was unexpectedly shut down for maintenance to a recirculation pump. The reactor was brought back to full power by February 20, 2016.
In addition to Perry, Energy Harbor also owns and operates the Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley nuclear plants.
| Unit 1 | Unit 2 | |
| Reactor Type | BWR-6 | BWR-6 |
| Reactor Manufacturer | General Electric | General Electric |
| Turbine Manufacturer | General Electric | General Electric |
| Thermal Power | 3,758 megawatts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| Electrical Output | 1,260 megawatts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| Transmission System Connection | 345,000 volts | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| Construction Permit Issued | May 3, 1977 | May 3, 1977 |
| Initial Criticality | June 1986 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| First Electrical Generation | November 13, 1986 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| Operational Date | November 18, 1987 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
| Expiration of Original License | March 18, 2026 | Unit canceled in 1994 |
Surrounding population
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of, concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about, concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.The 2010 U.S. population within of Perry was 83,410, an increase of 8 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within was 2,281,531, a decrease of 3.0 percent since 2000. Cities within include Cleveland. Canadian population is not included in these figures.