Interns and faculty from the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research (NCESR) visited NPPD’s Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS) on July 30 to learn more about clean, sustainable nuclear energy and how it has been generated at the site for fifty years.
The site tour kicked off with a presentation led by Operations Training Superintendent Kody Youngquist that included the background and history of CNS, how a boiling water reactor generates nuclear power, and the value of existing nuclear power plants in addition to the growing interest in advanced nuclear options. The NCESR team was then escorted by Engineering Programs and Codes Engineer Taylor Sutton, I&C Design - Engineer I Jacob Patrick, and Youngquist to the Protected Area, where they were provided with an interactive demonstration in the Control Room Simulator. While in the Training Building, the tour leads explained the control rod and fuel bundle displays and showed the group where the used fuel is stored in the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. Additional tour stops included the Reactor Building’s refuel floor, Control Room corridor where the group met with Operations Shift Manager Brad Bare, Turbine Building, switchyard, and simulator tour and demonstrations. The tour concluded with lunch and an overview of CNS career opportunities presented by Operations Manager – Training Andy Askins.
Thank you to all the staff at CNS for making this tour a success! The tour is always a highlight for the summer interns.
Congratulations to CNS on Celebrating 50 Years of Operation
This summer, CNS celebrated fifty years of commercial operation. As the state’s longest and currently only operating nuclear power plant and one of just 94 nuclear power plants in the nation, CNS has generated approximately 275 million MWhs of carbon-free electricity, preventing emissions of approximately 275 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
In June 1968, NPPD (known as Consumers Public Power District at the time) received permission to begin construction of CNS, using more than 90,000 cubic yards of concrete and 10,000 tons of steel in the process. The plant began commercial operation on July 1, 1974, and its General Electric BWR/4 reactor is capable of generating a nominal 800 megawatts of electricity.
CNS received a license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in November 2010, extending the operating license to January 2034. This past February, NPPD’s Board of Directors authorized management to pursue a subsequent license renewal that, if approved by the NRC, would extend the operating license to January 2054.
Since its inception, CNS has achieved many notable accomplishments. In 1998, it was the first plant in the U.S. 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. That program helped make the world safer and powered the Nebraska economy.