The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

with a single Westinghouse designed pressurized-water

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

operated by

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in ...

. It was named in honor of W. Shearon Harris, former president of Carolina Power & Light (predecessor of Progress Energy Inc.). Located in New Hill,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

, it generates 900

MWe The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

, has a 523-foot (160 m) natural draft cooling tower, and uses

Harris Lake Harris Lake or Harris Lake may refer to: *Harris Lake (Berrien County, Michigan) *Harris Lake (New Hill, North Carolina) *Harris Lake (Highlands, North Carolina) *Thomas Lake Harris, an American spiritualistic prophet and poet *Lake Harris (Florida ...

for cooling. The reactor achieved criticality in January 1987 and began providing power commercially on May 2 of that year. 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 final cost approached $3.9B, including safety upgrades mandated after the

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

. On November 16, 2006, the operator applied to the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operat ...

(NRC) for a renewal and extension of the plant's operating license. The NRC granted the renewal on December 17, 2008, extending the license from forty years to sixty.

Units 2 & 3

On February 19, 2008 Progress filed an application with the

(NRC) for a

Combined Construction and Operating License The Combined Construction and Operating License (Regulatory Guide 1.206, COL) replaced the previous Draft Regulatory Guide 1145 as the licensing process for new nuclear power plants in the United States. It is a part of a newer "streamlined" proce ...

(COL). It seeks to build two 1,100 MWe Westinghouse

AP1000 The AP1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse Electric Company. The plant is a pressurized water reactor with improved use of passive nuclear safety and many design features intended to lower its capital cost and improve ...

pressurized water reactors. Although the NRC had already certified the AP1000 design, the application review was expected to take about 36 months. The new reactors would not be operational before 2018. Expansion of the plant would require raising the water level of

by 20 feet, decreasing the size of Wake County's largest park, with the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Carol ...

as a backup water source. On January 22, 2010 officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas ...

from the damaged Unit 2 reactor at

Three Mile Island 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

would be used at Shearon Harris. The generator was refurbished and installed during a refueling outage in November, 2010. 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. 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. The COLA remains docketed, however, leaving the door open for Duke to restart activities.

Electricity Production

Reactor data

Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant control room

The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant consists of one operational reactor. Three additional units were cancelled. Two additional reactors were planned and cancelled in 2013.

Safety

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspections

As 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. 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.

Surrounding population

The

defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of , concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about , concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity. The 2010 U.S. population within of Shearon Harris was 96,401, an increase of 62.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within was 2,562,573, an increase of 26.0 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include

(21 miles to city center),

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

(24 miles to city center), Fayetteville (39 miles to city center). During

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

'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.

NC-WARN concerns

The anti-nuclear group "N.C. 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". However, the plant's technical and security systems have passed all

(NRC) standards , including protection and security, and no worker or area resident has been injured as a result of the plant's operation.

Spent fuel pools

In 2010, Project Censored, a non-profit, investigative journalism project, ranked the safety issues at Shearon Harris the 4th most under-reported story of the year, because of the risk of fires at what are the largest spent-fuel pools in the country. In August 2007, NC WARN dropped a lawsuit against Progress Energy that was intended to delay or prevent expansion of Shearon Harris, claiming that continuing the legal battle would cost at least $200,000.

Shutdown

On May 16, 2013, Shearon Harris Unit 1 initiated an unplanned shutdown when reviews of ultrasonic data from a refueling outage in spring 2012 determined a 1/4" flaw was inside the 6"-thick Reactor Pressure Vessel Head. The flaw was near the nozzle for a control rod drive mechanism and attributed to primary water stress corrosion cracking, though no actual leakage was detected. Due to high radiation levels, the repairs required robotic aid.

References

External links

Harris Energy and Environmental Center

* ttps://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/harris.html NRC Public Information regarding the Units 2 & 3 Expansion Proposal
Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves construction of first nuclear units in 30 years

INDY News article about local opposition to NRC safety oversight
* http://www.nukeworker.com/pictures/thumbnails-101.html

* http://www.wral.com/shearon-harris-nuclear-plant-to-test-sirens-in-apex-after-false-alarm/17280701/ {{Authority control Energy infrastructure completed in 1987 Towers completed in 1987 Nuclear power stations using AP1000 reactors Towers in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Wake County, North Carolina Nuclear power plants in North Carolina Nuclear power stations using pressurized water reactors Nuclear power stations with proposed reactors 1987 establishments in North Carolina