Country United States Operator(s) FirstEnergy Phone +1 724-682-7888 | Status Operational Reactor type PWR Units operational 2 | |
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Location Shippingport, Pennsylvania Commission date Unit 1: July 2, 1976
Unit 2: August 14, 1987 Address 808 PA-168, Hookstown, PA 15050, USA Hours Open today ยท Open 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hours Similar Catawba Nuclear Station, Braidwood Nuclear Generatin, Donald C Cook Nuclear, Prairie Island Nuclear P, Duane Arnold Energy C | ||
Beaver Valley Power Station is a nuclear power plant covering 1,000 acres (400 ha) near Shippingport, Pennsylvania, United States, 34 miles (55 km) roughly northwest of Pittsburgh. The Beaver Valley plant is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Corporation. FirstEnergy is the holding company for Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Metropolitan Edison, Jersey Central Power and Light, and the Pennsylvania Power Company.
Contents
This plant has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors.
While the Shippingport Reactor has been decommissioned, Beaver Valley Units 1 and 2 are still licensed and in operation.
Surrounding population
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Beaver Valley was 114,514, a decrease of 6.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 3,140,766, a decrease of 3.7 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Pittsburgh (27 miles upwind of city center).
Seismic risk
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Beaver Valley was Reactor 1: 1 in 20,833; Reactor 2: 1 in 45,455, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.
Fessenheim
Beaver Valley 1 was used as the reference design for the French nuclear plant at Fessenheim.