Cooper Nuclear Station

Description

CNS is owned and operated by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), a political subdivision of the state of Nebraska.

The facility is named after Humboldt natives Guy Cooper Jr., and Guy Cooper Sr. The senior Cooper's father, O. A. Cooper, built the first electrical plant in Humboldt in 1890; the two Guy Coopers served a total of 27 years on the board of NPPD and its predecessor agency, Consumers Public Power District.

CNS was first put into operation in July 1974 and generates approximately 800 megawatts (MWe) of electricity. The plant consists of a General Electric BWR/4 series reactor plant and a Westinghouse turbine generator. The plant has a Mark I containment system.

In 1998, CNS was the first plant in the United States to load nuclear fuel containing uranium that had been provided under the Megatons to Megawatts Program, in which uranium removed from nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union was turned into low-enriched uranium and then into fuel.{{Cite book

In September 2008, NPPD applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a renewal of the operating license for CNS, extending it for an additional twenty years.{{cite web | access-date=2008-11-25 }} In November 2010 CNS received its license renewal, which was the 60th renewal license to be issued by the NRC.{{cite news | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131132355/http://www.powergenworldwide.com/index/display/articledisplay/9629112156/articles/powergenworldwide/nuclear/o-and-m/2010/11/Cooper-nuclear-license-renewed.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 31, 2013 | access-date=2010-12-02

In late 2003 NPPD signed a contract with Entergy Nuclear for management support services. An agreement was approved in January 2010 by NPPD to extend Entergy's management support services until January 2029. The original contract between the companies, signed in 2003, was for the remaining years of the plant's original operating license, which ran until January 18, 2014. In March 2022 NPPD announced that the Entergy contract would be terminated.

Electricity production

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 mi, concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 mi, concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity. In 2010, the population within 10 miles of Cooper was 4,414; the population within 50 miles was 163,610. Cities within the 50-mile radius include Nebraska City, with a population of 7,289, located 25 mi from the plant.

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 CNS was 1 in 142,857, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.{{Cite web | author-link = Bill Dedman | access-date =2011-04-19 }}{{Cite web | access-date=19 Apr 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525170632/http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/quake%20nrc%20risk%20estimates.pdf | archive-date=25 May 2017 | url-status=dead

Events

At 0402 CDT on June 19, 2011 a Notification of Unusual Event (the lowest of NRC emergency classifications) was declared due to the elevation of the Missouri River reaching 899.1 feet above mean sea level. This is above the Emergency Action Level HU1.5 elevation of 899 feet. Later, the Missouri River reached 900.6 feet on 6/23/2011 while elevation of 902 feet is the alert level for the plant.{{Cite web | author-link=Benjamin Kehoe | access-date=2011-06-23 }}

| access-date=2011-06-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110621225220/http://www.nppd.com/flood/powerplants.asp | archive-date=2011-06-21 | url-status=dead

On March 15, 2019, another Unusual Event low-level emergency was declared at Cooper due to flooding, with a forecast crest that exceeds the 2011 flooding.

Notes

References

1. "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles".
2. [http://www.nppd.com/About_Us/Energy_Facilities/facilities/cns.asp "Cooper Nuclear Station".] {{webarchive. link. (2008-11-21 [http://www.nppd.com/ Nebraska Public Power District.] Retrieved 2011-05-04.)
3. [http://www.iowahomelandsecurity.org/documents/rep/REP_Fact_Cooper.pdf "A Closer Look at Cooper Nuclear Station".] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-03-23 Nebraska Public Power District brochure; online at [http://iowahomelandsecurity.org/ Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management website.] Retrieved 2011-05-04.)
4. "News Release: NPPD mutually agrees to end services contract with Entergy".
5. "Electricity Data Browser".
6. "NRC: Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear Power Plants".
7. (2011-04-14). "Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors".
8. Drozd, David. [http://www.unomaha.edu/~cpar/documents/CityPopDisplay.pdf "Nebraska Incorporated Place Census Populations with Changes and Percent Changes: 1980 to 2010".] {{webarchive. link. (2012-04-02 Center for Public Affairs Research, University of Nebraska—Omaha. Retrieved 2011-05-04.)
9. "Cooper Nuclear Station no longer at emergency status {{!".
10. Gardner, Nancy. (March 16, 2019). "Cooper Nuclear Station still operating but preparing for shutdown as Missouri River hits record levels". Omaha World-Herald.