Perry Nuclear Power Plant | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Location | North Perry, Lake County, Ohio |
Coordinates | 41°48′3″N 81°8′36″W / 41.80083°N 81.14333°W |
Status | Operational |
Construction began | October 1, 1974[1][2] |
Commission date | November 18, 1987[1] |
Construction cost | $6.024 billion (2007 USD)[3] ($8.53 billion in 2023 dollars[4]) |
Owner | Vistra Corp |
Operator | Vistra Corp |
Nuclear power station | |
Reactor type | BWR |
Reactor supplier | General Electric |
Cooling towers | 2 × Natural Draft (one in use) |
Cooling source | Lake Erie |
Thermal capacity | 1 × 3758 MWth |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 1 × 1256 MW |
Make and model | BWR-6 (Mark 3) |
Units cancelled | 1 × 1205 MW |
Nameplate capacity | 1256 MW |
Capacity factor | 89.18% (2017) 80.80% (lifetime) |
Annual net output | 9703 GWh (2021) |
External links | |
Website | Perry |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
700+ employees[1] |
The Perry Nuclear Power Plant is located on a 1,100 acres (450 ha) site on Lake Erie, 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Cleveland in North Perry, Ohio, US. The nuclear power plant is owned and operated by Vistra Corporation.
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 as it is no longer profitable to run when competing against natural gas plants.[5] To avert this, Ohio House Bill 6 was signed into law in July 2019 which added a fee to residents' utility bills that funded subsidies of $150 million per year to Perry and the Davis–Besse nuclear plant to keep both plants operational.[6][7] However, the bill was alleged to be part of the Ohio nuclear bribery scandal revealed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in July 2020.[8][7]
During months of hearings, the company argued that its uncompetitive old coal and nuclear plants would become competitive once the price of natural gas increased. And at that point, customers would see credits on their monthly bills, they argued. Opponents cited federal predictions that natural gas would stay cheap for decades and customers would just keep on paying higher rates.
Last year's nuclear bailout law tacked on a charge to residents' power bills, sending $150 million a year to the nuclear power plants. They are owned by the company Energy Harbor, which was previously known as FirstEnergy Solutions.