Waste Awareness and Reduction Network" (NC-WARN) questioned the facility's safety and security record calling it "insufficient" and claiming "it is the most dangerous nuclear plant in the US". ĭuring FEMA's most recent evaluation of state and local government's plans and preparedness included emergency operations for the plant, no deficiencies or areas requiring corrective actions were identified. Cities within 50 miles include Raleigh (21 miles to city center), Durham (24 miles to city center), Fayetteville (39 miles to city center).
population within 50 miles (80 km) was 2,562,573, an increase of 26.0 percent since 2000. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Shearon Harris was 96,401, an increase of 62.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S.
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 NRC's risk estimate for an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Shearon Harris was 1 in 434,783, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. Safety Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspections Īs of September 2017, the Harris plant is one of three out of the 99 plants in the country to have no Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) findings during the past 4 quarters of inspections. Reactor unit Ĭancelled construction on 1 December 1983Ĭancelled construction on 1 December 1981 Two additional reactors were planned and cancelled in 2013. The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant consists of one operational reactor. The COLA remains docketed, however, leaving the door open for Duke to restart activities. Duke has determined the forecast operating dates of the proposed reactors falls outside the fifteen-year planning horizon utilized by state regulators in their demonstration of need evaluation.
#COMANCHE PEAK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT LICENSE#
On May 2, 2013, Duke submitted a request to the NRC to suspend review of the Harris Units 2 and 3 Combined License Application (COLA), effectively halting further development of this project.
#COMANCHE PEAK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT GENERATOR#
The generator was refurbished and installed during a refueling outage in November, 2010.
On Januofficials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the electrical generator from the damaged Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island would be used at Shearon Harris. Įxpansion of the plant would require raising the water level of Harris Lake by 20 feet, decreasing the size of Wake County's largest park, with the Cape Fear River as a backup water source. The new reactors would not be operational before 2018. Although the NRC had already certified the AP1000 design, the application review was expected to take about 36 months. It seeks to build two 1,100 MWe Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors. On FebruProgress filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL).
The Shearon Harris site was originally designed for four reactors (and still has the space available for them), but cancellation of an aluminum smelter plant in eastern North Carolina in the 1970s resulted in three of the reactors being canceled. The reactor achieved criticality in January 1987 and began providing power commercially on May 2 of that year. Located in New Hill, North Carolina, in the United States, about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Raleigh, it generates 900 MWe, has a 523-foot (160 m) natural draft cooling tower, and uses Harris Lake for cooling. Shearon Harris, former president of Carolina Power & Light (predecessor of Progress Energy Inc.). The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant with a single Westinghouse designed pressurized-water nuclear reactor operated by Duke Energy.