| Crystal River Nuclear Plant | |
|---|---|
 Aerial of Crystal River Nuclear Plant | |
 | |
| Official name | Crystal River Nuclear Plant |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Crystal River, Florida |
| Coordinates | 28°57.45′N 82°41.90′W / 28.95750°N 82.69833°W |
| Status | Being decommissioned |
| Construction began | September 25, 1968 |
| Commission date | March 13, 1977 |
| Decommission date | – |
| Construction cost | $1.436 billion (2007)[1] |
| Owner | Duke Energy |
| Nuclear power station | |
| Reactor type | PWR |
| Reactor supplier | Babcock & Wilcox |
| Thermal capacity | 2568 |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 860 MW |
| Capacity factor | 66.4% |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
The Crystal River Nuclear Plant also called the Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant, or simply CR-3, is a closed nuclear power plant located in Crystal River, Florida. As of 2013[update] the facility is being decommissioned, a process expected to last 60 years.[2][3] The power plant was completed and licensed to operate in December 1976, and operated safely for 33 years until shutdown in September 2009. It was the third plant built as part of the 4,700-acre (1,900 ha) Crystal River Energy Complex (CREC) which contains a single nuclear power plant, while sharing the site with four operational fossil fuel power plants.
The Crystal River reactor went offline in September 2009 for refueling, OTSG replacement (once through steam generator), and 20% power up-rate outage. In preparing the containment building for making the opening to replace the two OTSG's, tendons in the containment building wall were detensioned. During the concrete removal in creating the opening workers discovered a large gap in the concrete of the containment building wall. The main cause of the gap, which further engineering analysis determined was a large delamination, was attributed to the scope and sequence of the tendon detensioning.[4] The plant had originally been scheduled to restart in April 2011, but the project encountered a number of delays.[5] Repairs were successful, but additional delamination began to occur in adjacent bays. After several months of analyzing options, Duke Energy senior executives announced in February 2013 that the Crystal River Nuclear Plant would be permanently shut down.[6] The costs were estimated at $1.18 billion over the next 60 years of decommissioning.[7]
The coal-fired units are not affected.[8]
Crystal River was originally owned by Florida Progress Corporation (and operated by its subsidiary, Florida Power Corporation) but, in 2000, it was bought by Carolina Power & Light to form the new company, Progress Energy. Progress Energy owned 91.8% of the plant; the remainder is owned by nine municipal utilities. Effective July 2, 2012, Duke Energy purchased Progress Energy and made it a wholly owned direct unit of Duke Energy.[9]
- ^ "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". Energy Information Administration. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
- ^ Duke Energy (December 2, 2013). "Crystal River Unit 3 - Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report" (PDF). Pbadupws.nrc.gov. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
- ^ Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Generating Plant. NRC, update 13 Apr 2022
- ^ "CRYSTAL RIVER NUCLEAR PLANT - SPECIAL INSPECTION REPORT 05000302/2009007" (PDF). Nrc.gov. October 12, 2010. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
- ^ "Progress analyzing Crystal River repair proposals". World Nuclear News. January 11, 2012.
- ^ "Crystal River Nuclear Plant to be retired; company evaluating sites for potential new gas-fueled generation". Duke-energy.com. February 5, 2013. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
- ^ Shutting down Crystal River nuclear plant will cost $1.2 billion, take 60 years. Tampa Bay Times, 11 Dec 2013
- ^ "Duke Energy shuts down Crystal River nuclear plant permanently". CFN13. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
- ^ "Duke Energy Acquires Progress Energy". Finance.yahoo.com. July 5, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2017.