Kingston Fossil Plant, commonly known as Kingston Steam Plant, is a 1.4-gigawatt (1,398 MW)

coal-fired power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

located in Roane County, just outside

Kingston, Tennessee Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Roane County, Tennessee, United States. This city is thirty-six miles southwest of Knoxville. It had a population of 5,934 at the 2010 United States census, and is included in the Harriman Micropolit ...

on the shore of

Watts Bar Lake Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River created by Watts Bar Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system. Geography Located in the U.S. state of Tennessee about midway between the cities of Chattanooga and Knoxville, the l ...

. It is operated by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

. The plant is known for the Kingston Fossil Plant fly ash spill which occurred in December 2008.

History

Construction of the Kingston Fossil Plant began on April 30, 1951. It was the largest coal-fired power plant in the world when completed in 1955. It was built primarily to provide

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

for the nearby

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research and ...

. A dedication ceremony for the plant took place on November 17, 1955. The plant is a popular site for

birdwatchers Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

, as many waterfowl come to the

settling Settling is the process by which particulates move towards the bottom of a liquid and form a sediment. Particles that experience a force, either due to gravity or due to centrifugal motion will tend to move in a uniform manner in the direction e ...

and treatment ponds nearby. The plant has nine generating units: Units 1–4, rated at 175 MW each (launched into service in 1954), and Units 5–9, rated at 200 MW each (launched in 1955). Combined, the plant has a total capacity of 1,700 MWe (1,398 MWe net). It produces about ten billion

kilowatt hours A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...

of electricity from some five million tons of coal each year. All nine generating units are equipped with

selective catalytic reduction Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a means of converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen (), and water (). A reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia (), aqueous ammonia (), or a urea () s ...

(SCR) systems to reduce

nitrogen oxide Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), or n ...

() emissions that contribute to the formation of

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

. In 1976, its original nine stacks were taken out of service (though left standing) and replaced by a pair of 1,000-foot (304.8 meter) tall chimneys, one for Units 1–5 and one for Units 6–9. These stacks were replaced with a single stack connected to scrubbers which were installed in 2007.

2008 spill

In December 2008, an

impoundment Impoundment may refer to: Water control * The result of a dam, creating a body of water ** A reservoir, formed by a dam ** Coal slurry impoundment, a specialized form of such a reservoir used for coal mining and processing * Impounded dock, an enc ...

at the plant failed, releasing of coal

fly ash Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash (in the UK) plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs)is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates (fine particles of burned fuel) that are driven out of coal-fired ...

slurry that covered up to of the surrounding land, damaging homes and flowing into nearby waterways such as the

Emory River The Emory River is a river draining a portion of Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau. It flows for just over from its source near Frozen Head State Park to its mouth along the Clinch River at Kingston, Tennessee. Hydrography The Emory River rises on ...

and

Clinch River The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Ki ...

, tributaries of the Tennessee River. This was the largest accidental release of coal fly ash in the United States.

EPA compliance agreement

On April 14, 2011, the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(EPA) announced a settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations at 11 of its coal-fired plants in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Under the terms of the agreement, Units 1–9 will continuously operate Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems to reduce their emissions of .Federal Facilities Compliance Agreement Between EPA and TVA
/ref>

References

External links

TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant pageNews coverage of the breach of a pond dam at the coal plant on Dec. 22, 2008
''

Knoxville News Sentinel The ''Knoxville News Sentinel, also known as Knox News,'' is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Gannett Company. History The newspaper was formed in 1926 from the merger of two competing newspapers: ''The ...

'' {{supertall chimneys Energy infrastructure completed in 1954 Energy infrastructure completed in 1955 Towers completed in 1976 Coal-fired power stations in Tennessee Towers in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Roane County, Tennessee Tennessee Valley Authority Chimneys in the United States 1954 establishments in Tennessee

History

2008 spill

EPA compliance agreement

See also

References

External links