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Growing South Carolina's nuclear power source |
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Friday, 24 October 2008 |
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SCE&G and Santee Cooper have jointly owned and operated a single nuclear reactor at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville since the 1980s. (File photo)
By Lydia Dishman
Contributing Writer
The calls for action are constant, loud and clear. Citizens, environmental groups and government officials are demanding that the nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil, establish an environmentally clean power source and develop renewable energy resources.
South Carolina Electric & Gas and its parent company, SCANA, believe nuclear power is at least part of the answer and in 2005 began the application process to build two nuclear reactors in rural Fairfield County. The $10 billion plan involves building two Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, where SCE&G and Santee Cooper have jointly owned and operated a single reactor since the 1980s.
In September, SCE&G was given the OK to begin the site preparation for the reactors, but, as of press time, permission had not been granted for the construction of the two nuclear units. The S.C. Public Service Commission will begin hearing the application for construction Dec. 1. If all goes well, SCE&G could begin construction on the site in 2010 and have the first plant up and running by 2016. The second would follow in 2019.
According to SCANA spokesman Robert Yanity, South Carolina already gets 52% of its electricity from nuclear power. Yanity says our state is nuclear-friendly — “We are third in the country; the state average is about 20%” — and he believes that has kept the price of electricity reasonable here.
The state has seven reactors. The others are in York (2), Darlington (1) and Oconee (3) counties.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the V.C. Summer plant had a 16% share of the state’s nuclear generation in 2007, with a net capacity of 966 megawatts. The plant generated 8,479 megawatt-hours.
“The synergy, with the existing plant and the geology, works,” Yanity said, noting that the adjacent Monticello Reservoir that is fed by the Broad River is capable of supplying two more reactors.
Nuclear plants make electricity much the same way that other plants do. Steam is used to spin a turbine-driven generator, which in turn produces electricity. The difference is the source of the heat used to make that steam. Whereas other plants burn coal or oil to create heat at a nuclear plant, inside a nuclear reactor, heat is produced by splitting atoms of uranium fuel.
According to SCE&G’s Web site, “Water heated by the nuclear fuel is kept under pressure inside a closed system. This hot water (about 600 degrees Fahrenheit) flows through a heat exchanger called a steam generator. Here, it heats another loop of water that becomes the steam used to turn the turbine to make electricity. The water from the reactor remains in this closed system to be used over and over. It is not mixed with the water that becomes steam. After turning the turbine that makes the electricity, the steam is condensed by cooling water from Monticello Reservoir. The condensed steam — now water — is reheated and the process is repeated.”
Yanity said, “The reactors don’t consume as much water as folks believe; 98% is returned and reused, while the other 2% evaporates.”
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