Farley (Joseph M. Farley) Nuclear Generating Station
Encyclopedia
The Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Generating Station is located near Dothan, Alabama
Dothan, Alabama
Dothan is a city located in the southeastern corner of the US state of Alabama, situated approximately west of the Georgia state line and north of Florida. It is the seat of Houston County, with portions extending into nearby Dale County and Henry County...

. The twin-unit nuclear power station  sits on a 1,850-acre (7.4 km²) site in Houston County
Houston County, Alabama
Houston County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of 2010 the population was 101,547. Its county seat is Dothan.Houston County is part of the Dothan Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...

, which is largely wooded and agricultural.

The plant is named after the late Joseph McConnell Farley, an American attorney born in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

 who became president of Alabama Power (owner of the facility) from 1969 to 1989 and was later CEO of Southern Nuclear Operating Company; both companies are subsidiaries of Southern Company
Southern Company
Southern Company is a public utility holding company of primarily electric utilities in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the 16th largest utility company in the world and the...

.

This plant has two Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...

 pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...

s.
  • Unit 1 900 MWe
    MWE
    MWE may refer to:*Manufacturer's Weight Empty*McDermott Will & Emery*Midwest Express, an airline*Merowe Airport - IATA code*Multiword expressionMWe may refer to:*Megawatt electrical...

  • Unit 2 920 MWe


Construction of the plant began in 1970. Unit 1 achieved commercial operation in December 1977. Unit 2 began commercial operation in July 1981. The total cost of the plant was about $1.57 billion. On May 12, 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

 (NRC) approved license renewal applications for both reactors at the site. Unit 1's extended operating license is set to expire on June 25, 2037 and Unit 2's on March 31, 2041.

Ownership

  • Farley, Unit 1
    • Owner = Alabama Power Company
      Alabama Power Company
      Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.3 million homes, businesses, and industries in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It is one of four U.S...

       (100 percent).
    • Operator (Licensee) = Southern Nuclear Operation Company.
  • Farley, Unit 2
    • Owner = Alabama Power Company (100 percent).
    • Operator (Licensee) = Southern Nuclear Operation Company.

Unit 1 900 MWe
Unit 2 920 MWe
from website of USNRC

Surrounding population

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16.1 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80.5 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16.1 km) of Farley was 11,842, an increase of 8.0 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80.5 km) was 421,374, an increase of 6.1 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Dothan (17 miles to city center).

Seismic risk

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Farley was 1 in 35,714, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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