The nuclear power is Washington State continues to break records regardless of two surprising outages. The nuclear plant that is situated near Richland has generated a record of 9.6 billion kWhrs of electricity last year.
It broke the previous record of 9.5 billion kWhrs, which was in 2014 and the plant is said to have a strong reliability. One main reason is that it consumes little fuel and it goes on continuously as stated on Forbes.
The refueling of all nuclear plants take place only once in two years and this is because of extra power with little amount of fuel. Fossil fuel plants are seemingly different as they require to be filled with fuel continuously.
According to Nuclear Street, the Columbia Generating Station has been only giving a better performance and it has generated electricity for thirty two years. It turns out that the electricity production has been increased over the last six years. This could have not been possible if there was no safety improvements and continuous maintenance.
With the next fueling outage will take place in May 2017, the station have also added around 40 MW of production capacity since 2011 and it sums up the total to 1190 MW. With 93 percent of capacity operated since 2012, the plant has been producing it maximum power almost all the time.
This is definitely a great achievement, Mark Reddemann the CEO of Energy Northwest stated that he is proud of the team for their contribution and hard work in setting the latest plant record.
The Columbia Generating Station uses 5 percent of 20 tons of fuel each year in order to generate 9.6 billion kWhs of electricity. When compared to a coal plant it requires nearly a million tons of fuel to produce the same amount of electricity. Washington's Nuclear Power Plant broke a new record and all credit goes to the dedication and hard work of the team.
