Stumble It!
Oyster Creek gets OK to add water tank system
175,000-GALLON UNIT
LACEY — The operators of Oyster Creek Generating Station received the go-ahead last week to add a 175,000-gallon water tank system to its operation.
Approval was received from both the township and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The large tank will be filled with demineralized water that will be trucked into the facility, said David Benson, spokesman for the plant.
It will be located in a permeable surface on the property, not in the protected area, he added.
The project went before the township Board of Adjustment on Aug. 6 and was approved.
Benson added that the water would not be coming from the Lacey Municipal Utilities Authority.
Rather, water would be brought to the plant by truck and used to feed the plant’s isolation condensers, which make up steam for the plant’s boiler reactor.
The system will replace another part of the facilities equipment, he said.
The isolation condenser is part of a nuclear reactor system, which includes containment uses. Upon a loss of coolant event, an isolation condenser is submerged in a large supply of water and elevated some distance above the system pressure vessel to effect both initial and decay heat dissipation cooling in the containment area.
Exelon is not mandated to add the new water tank by regulations of the NRC, nor any conditions recommended for the company to gain its license renewal.
He said the new tank is “something we felt we should do.”
The plant is awaiting a decision from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on whether it will be issued renewal of its operating license that will permit the plant to operate for another 20 years. The license is set to expire in the spring of 2009.
Oyster Creek is the oldest operating nuclear plant in the country.
The facility is owned by Exelon Corp.
Benson said they don’t know what the NRC will do, “but we hope to go on to the future and operate in the next 20 years.”
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