The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is located on the Tennessee River near Decatur and Athens, Alabama, on the north side (right bank) of Wheeler Lake. The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is named after a ferry that operated at the site until the middle of the 20th century. The site has three General Electric boiling water reactor (BWR) nuclear generating units and is owned entirely by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant was TVA's first nuclear power plant; its approval occurred on June 17, 1966 and construction began in September 1966. In 1974, the time of its initial operation, it was the largest nuclear plant in the world. It was the first nuclear plant in the world to generate more than 1 gigawatt of power.

In 2006, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the licenses for all three reactors, extending them for an additional twenty years.

Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant Unit One

Unit One is a 1,065 MWe BWR built by General Electric. Construction started on Unit One September 12, 1966 and originally came online on December 20, 1973. It is licensed to operate through December 20, 2033. However, Unit One was shut down for a year after a fire in 1975 damaged the unit. The unit was subsequently repaired and operated from 1976 through 1985, when all three Browns Ferry units were shut down for operational and management issues. Units Two and Three were restarted in 1991 and 1995, respectively.

Starting in 2002, TVA undertook to restore Unit One to operational status, spending $1.8 billion to do so. The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the restart of Unit 1 on May 15, 2007 and the reactor was brought up to criticality on May 22 for the first time since March 3, 1985. During initial testing after restart, on May 24, 2007, a leaky hydraulic control pipe in the turbine hall burst, spilling about 600 gallons of non-radioactive fluid, and the newly restarted reactor was temporarily powered down. Reactor power-up and tests resumed on May 27 and the unit started supplying power to the electricity supply grid on June 2, 2007, reaching full power on June 8. The Browns Ferry restart is expected to pay for itself in five years.

Unit One can generate 1,155 MW of electricity, and TVA plans an uprate to 1,280 MWe for this and the other two reactors.

Unit One fire

The March 22, 1975 fire started when a worker using a candle to search for air leaks accidentally set a temporary cable seal on fire. The fire spread through the wall from the temporary seal. The presence of the fire on the other side of the wall was not recognized until significant damage had been done to the station's control cabling.

From NRC IE BULLETIN NO. - 75-04A:

This later resulted in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission making significant additions to the standards for fire protection through the publication of 10CFR50.48 and Appendix R. According to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the newly-restarted Unit One does not comply with these standards. Unit Three was not affected by the accident. This event was pivotal not just for firestopping in the nuclear field, but also in commercial and industrial construction. While the nuclear field went to installations of silicone foam, a wider array of firestops became prevalent in non-nuclear construction.

In a 2005 analysis of significant nuclear safety occurrences in the US, the NRC concluded that the fire at Browns Ferry was the most likely (excluding the actual accident at TMI) "precursor" incident to have led to a nuclear accident in the event of a subsequent failure.

Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant Unit Two

Unit Two is a 1,113 MWe BWR built by General Electric which originally came online on August 2, 1974, and is licensed to operate through June 28, 2034. Unit Two generated 8.911261 TW·h of electricity in 2003, achieving a capacity factor of 94.1%.

During a drought in August 2007, Unit Two was shut down for one day because water temperature in the Tennessee River rose too high for the water to be used for cooling and then discharged back into the river.

Beginning in 2005 Unit 2 was loaded with BLEU (Blended Low Enriched Uranium) recovered by the DOE from weapons programs. This fuel contains quantities of U-236 and other contaminants because it was made from reprocessed fuel from weapons program reactors and therefore has slightly different characteristics when used in a reactor as compared to fresh uranium fuel. By making use of this fuel which would otherwise have been disposed of as waste the TVA is saving millions of dollars in fuel costs and accumulating a database of recycled uranium reactions in LWR use.

Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant Unit Three

Unit Three is a 1,113 MWe BWR built by General Electric which originally came online on August 18, 1976, and is licensed to operate through July 2, 2036. Unit Three generated 9.260078 TW·h, achieving a capacity factor of 99%.

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant
Country	United States
Locale	Athens, Alabama
Coordinates	34°42′14″N 87°7′7″W / 34.70389°N 87.11861°W / 34.70389; -87.11861Coordinates / 34.70389; -87.11861
Status	Operational
Construction began	1966–77
Commission date	Unit 1: Dec. 20, 1973 Unit 2: Aug. 2, 1974 Unit 3: Aug. 18, 1976
Licence expiration	Unit 1: Dec. 20, 2033 Unit 2: June 6, 2034 Unit 3: July 2, 2036
Operator(s)	Tennessee Valley Authority
Architect(s)	TVA
Reactor information
Reactors operational	3,297 MW (3 reactors)
Reactor type(s)	boiling water reactor
Reactor supplier(s)	General Electric
Power generation information
Annual generation	21,227 GW·h

The Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant is a largest nuclear power plant in United States, located in Wintersburg, Arizona, about 45 miles (80 km) west of central Phoenix. It is the largest nuclear generation facility in the United States, averaging over 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of electrical power production in 2003 to serve approximately 4 million people. Arizona Public Service (APS) owns 29.1% of the station and operates the facility. Other owners include Salt River Project (17.5%), El Paso Electric Co. (15.8%), Southern California Edison (15.8%), PNM Resources (10.2%), Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9%), and the Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power (5.7%).

The Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant facility is on 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land and consists of three Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors, each with an original capacity of 1.27 gigawatts electrical, current (2007) maximum capacity of 1.24 gigawatts electrical,^[4] and typical operating capacity 70%–95% of this. The plant is a major source of power for Phoenix and Southern California, capable of serving about 4 million people. The plant provides about 35% of the electricity generated in Arizona each year. The plant was fully operational by 1988, taking twelve years to build and costing $5.9 billion, eventually employing 2,386 people. The plant employs 2,055 full-time on-site workers.

Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant supplies electricity at an operating cost (including fuel and maintenance) of 1.33 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. This is cheaper than coal (2.26 cents/kW·h) or natural gas (4.54 cents/kW·h) in the region at the same time (2002), but more expensive than hydro (0.63 cents/kW·h). Assuming a 60-year plant life and 5% long-term cost of capital, the depreciation and capital costs not included in the previous marginal cost for Palo Verde are approximately another 1.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. In 2002, the wholesale value of the electricity produced was 2.5 cents/kW·h. By 2007, the wholesale value of electricity at the Palo Verde hub was 6.33 cents/kW·h.

Due to its location in the Arizona desert, Palo Verde is the only nuclear generating facility in the world that is not located adjacent to a large body of above-ground water. The facility evaporates water from the treated sewage of several nearby municipalities to meet its cooling needs. 20 billion US gallons (76,000,000 m³) of treated water are evaporated each year. This water represents about 25% of the annual overdraft of the Arizona Department of Water Resources Phoenix Active Management Area. At the nuclear plant site, the wastewater is further treated and stored in an 80 acre (324,000 m²) reservoir for use in the plant's cooling towers.

The nuclear steam supply for each unit was designed and supplied by Combustion Engineering, designated the System 80 standard design–a predecessor of the newer standard System 80+ design. Each primary system originally supplied 3.817 GW of thermal power to the secondary (steam) side of each plant. The design is a so-called 2 × 4, with each of four main reactor coolant pumps circulating more than 111,000 gallons per minute of primary-side water through 2 large steam generators.

The main turbine generators were supplied by General Electric and when installed were the largest in the world, capable of generating 1.447 GW of electricity each. They remain the largest 60 Hz turbine generators.

Bechtel Power Corporation was the Architect/Engineer/Constructor for the facility initially under the direction of the Arizona Nuclear Power Project (a joint APS/SRP endeavor), later managed exclusively by Arizona Public Service. Edwin E. Van Brunt was the key APS executive in charge of engineering, construction, and early operations of the plant. William E. Bingham was the Bechtel Chief Engineer for the project. Arthur von Boennighausen was one of the Owner's Representatives for Arizona Public Service.

Unlike most multi-unit nuclear power plants, each unit at Palo Verde is an independent power plant, sharing only a few minor systems. The reactor containment buildings are some of the largest in the world at about 2.6 million cubic feet (74,000 m³) enclosed. The three containment domes over the reactors are made of 4-foot (1.2 m) thick concrete.

The facility's design incorporates many features to enhance safety by addressing issues identified earlier in the operation of commercial nuclear reactors. The design is also one of the most spacious internally, providing exceptional room for the conduct of operations and maintenance by the operating staff.

The Palo Verde 500 kV switchyard is a key point in the western states power grid, and is used as a reference point in the pricing of electricity across the southwest United States. Many 500 kV power lines from companies like Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric send power generated at the plant to Los Angeles and San Diego via Path 46, respectively. In addition, due to both the strategic interconnections of the substation and the large size of the generating station, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council considers a simultaneous loss of 2 of the 3 units the worst case contingency for system stability.

The site was granted a construction permit for two additional units in the late 1970s, however these units were canceled in the mid-1980s for economical risk reasons. Contrary to popular belief, the two additional units would not have been on the same arc as the three existing units — they would have been arranged south of Unit 3 on a north-south axis. As originally conceived they would have used dry cooling towers rather than the forced-draft wet cooling towers used in the existing design.

Security

Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant was of such strategic importance, due to a variety of its features, that it and Phoenix were documented by the former Soviet Union as target locations in the event of nuclear conflict during the Cold War. In March 2003, National Guard troops were dispatched to protect the site during the launch of the Iraq war amidst fears of a terrorist attack.

The site team and nearby town of Wintersburg remain a key focus of work in regard to homeland security, ranking in importance along with Arizona's major cities, military bases, ports of entry, and tourist sites.

Security guards working for the utility are armed with semi-automatic weapons. They check identification and search vehicles entering the plant. Other security measures protect the reactors, including X-ray machines, explosive "sniffers", and heavy guarded turnstiles that require special identification to open. Armed guards, security checkpoints with machines, and bomb sensors are standard at every nuclear power plant in the US.

alo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
Country	United States
Locale	Wintersburg, Arizona
Coordinates	33°23′21″N 112°51′54″W / 33.389241°N 112.865081°W / 33.389241; -112.865081Coordinates: 33°23′21″N 112°51′54″W / 33.389241°N 112.865081°W / 33.389241; -112.865081
NRC region	Region 4
Status	Operational
Construction began	1976
Commission date	1988
Licence expires	March 25, 2027 (Unit 3)
Construction cost	$5.9 billion
Owner(s)	Arizona Public Service (29.1%), Salt River Project (17.5%), El Paso Electric Co. (15.8%), Southern California Edison (15.8%), PNM Resources (10.2%), Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9%), Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power (5.7%)
Operator(s)	Arizona Public Service
Architect(s)	Bechtel
Reactor information
Reactors operational	3
Reactors operational (MW)	3,875
Reactor types	pressurized water reactor
Reactor supplier(s)	Combustion Engineering
Installed capacity	3,739
Total generation (year)	2007
Net generation (for 1 yr)	26,782.391