Callaway Nuclear Plant Achieves First Breaker to Breaker Run

AmerenUE’s Callaway Nuclear Plant has achieved its first so-called "breaker-to-breaker run" after operating for 520 days without going out of service, according to a statement released by the St. Louis-based utility.

A breaker-to-breaker run is when a plant operates from one refueling to the next without going out of service. The plant is refueled every 18 months and must go offline during refueling.

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The 1,190-megawatt plant generated 16 million megawatt hours of electricity - enough to power on average more than 857,000 households.

Welcome to the club.

Comments

Anonymous said…

Extremely impressive performance! Congratulations to the operations team!

October 16, 2008 at 10:43 AM

Anonymous said…

I took 24 hours/day times 520 days times 1190 MWatts and got 14.8 MWhours. Does this plant run over capacity or do they have longer days?

October 16, 2008 at 5:09 PM

Anonymous said…

In response to anonymous, the difference is due to the fact that the 1,090 MW figure is "net" capacity, which excludes power used to run the plant itself. The plant's "gross" capacity is 1,300 MW, and the 16 million MWH generated over the 520 day period was gross generation. In listing the capacity of each of its power plants, AmerenUE normally uses net capacity, so in describing Callaway as a 1,090 MW plant in its news release it used the net figure to be consistent with company fact sheets and other materials.

October 17, 2008 at 2:01 PM

Anonymous said…

In my response, I meant to say 1,190 MW--not 1,090 MW.

October 17, 2008 at 3:12 PM

Rod Adams said…

It is also possible to safely operate a steam plant at greater than 100% of rated electrical power capacity under certain environmental conditions.

If, for example, the cooling water runs several degrees colder than the design conditions, the electrical power output will increase without increasing reactor power. Rankine cycle efficiency is improved with lower heat sink temperatures.

We used to make sure to find some nice cold water when proving we could make "rated turns".

October 18, 2008 at 4:11 AM

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