U.S. Nuclear Reactors 27 - Nine Mile Point, New York
The Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station is located on Lake Ontario near Oswego, New York. The plant contains two General Electric boiling water reactors. Unit One can generate six hundred and ten megawatts. It was issued an operation license for forty years in 1974 which was renewed for an additional twenty years in 2006. Unit Two can generate one thousand and eighty megawatts. It was issued an operation license for forty years in 1987 which was renewed for an additional twenty years in 2006. The plant is operated by Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC. The plant was constructed by Niagara Mohawk Power Corporations and eventually sold in 2000 to Constellation Nuclear.
The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about thirty seven thousand people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about nine hundred thousand people. The NRC estimates that there is a extremely low risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.
Between 1979 and 1996, there were repeated reports of cracking in the core shroud, the walls, drain lines, condensers, control rod stub tubes and other components and systems in the Unit One reactor. The Union of Concerned scientists called the situation at Unit One the worst case of cracking in the entire United States reactor fleet. Systemic mismanagement led to a record of almost one complaint a month for this twenty year period. In 1987, the NRC shut down Unit One after the owners admitted that there was a major waste handling problem. Primary coolant water flooded the waste building for years and fifty thousand gallons were pumped into Lake Ontario shortly before the forced shutdown. It took two years for the owners to clean up the mess sufficiently to be allowed to restart Unit One.
The Unit Two reactor took fifteen years and cost six billion four hundred million dollars to construct. This made it the most expensive reactor in the world at that point. In spite of the enormous amount of money spent, shoddy construction has been a continuing problem. In 1991, there was almost a meltdown because of the failure of electrical systems in the control room. In 1999, there was a similar event that resulted in a drop in coolant levels that was very dangerous. The reactor core isolation cooling system has malfunctioned or failed at least four times. After ten years of operation, large cracks were discovered in the Unit Two core shroud.
Poor design, cracks everywhere, mismanagement, major leaks of coolants, failure of critical systems, cost overruns, multi-year shutdowns for repairs. These plants should not have been relicensed in 2006.
