Home page

CGS whistle-blower letters to Energy Northwest and media Plant management criticized for poor safety and production record

The Columbia Generating Station (CGS),
formerly known as WPPSS Nuclear Plant #2, is:

Hanford, Washington elevated spent fuel pool	Dangerous, because this nuclear reactor is of a design similar to the Fukushima plants, which were destroyed in the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The reactor's flawed design is vulnerable to catastrophic radiation releases. It is a GE Mark II Boiling Water Reactor similar to the four Fukushima plants that experienced catastrophic failures in Japan last year. Its elevated spent fuel pool, inadequately reinforced, is identical to one that nearly collapsed at Fukushima #4 and still threatens Japan and the North Pacific with further massive release of radioactive material.	Fukushima, Japan (former) elevated spent fuel pool
The reactor has the potential to suffer hydrogen explosions. The CGS nuclear plant also shares the potential problem of improper venting that caused hydrogen explosions at three of the Fukushima reactors when they lost their coolant. Energy Northwest plans to install vents, but without filters to block the release of radioactive materials during an accident. Furthermore, the reactor is:

More dangerous. The local earthquake danger is greater than the plant was designed to withstand. The CGS nuclear plant is threatened by additional newly-documented earthquake faulting in the vicinity, putting the nuclear site at greater risk of seismic activity, with ground motion potentially twice the maximum that the plant was designed to withstand. “No seismic structural upgrades have been made (at CGS) despite all of the geologic evidence …over the past thirty years which has dramatically increased the seismic risk at this site,” says consulting engineering geologist Terry L.Tolan.

 

 

Too expensive. A recent economic study demonstrates that electricity users would save $1.7 billion over the next 20 years if the plant were to be shut down now. The cost of electricity produced is above its market value. “Aside from the inherent dangers embedded in nuclear power, the economics of CGS no longer makes sense. The plant should be displaced.”   Economic Analysis of the Columbia Generating Station, by McCullough Research, 2013

We don't need the power from this nuclear plant. According to Washington Department of Commerce figures (download Excel spreadsheet), the plant has produced 4% to 6% of the electricity used in Washington annually since 2001 – and in 2011, due to a six-month shut down for repairs, it produced 2.6%. Energy conservation alone could make up the difference, and wind and solar energy are also viable substitutes.

The consortium that operates the nuclear plant goes by the sanitized name Energy Northwest. It was previously known as the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS, pronounced "Whoops.") WPPSS attempted to build five nuclear power plants in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Two of the projects went bankrupt, and two more were abandoned as unaffordable, billions of dollars over budget. (Read the history here.) Regional electricity users are still paying off the debt for those two abandoned plants, which never produced a single kilowatt hour of electricity.

CLOSING THE PLANT

Mechanisms by which the plant can be closed: Ordered by BPA: According to the 1971 Project Agreement, section 15(c), that governs the ownership and operation of CGS, the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Authority  (BPA) has the power to direct the termination of CGS. By the Participants' Review Board, composed of nine members representing the 92 utilities participating in the Columbia Generating Station. This board reviews all Columbia purchases over $500,000, nuclear construction and Columbia annual budgets, fuel management plans and plans for refinancing. By vote of the Board of Energy Northwest.

What you can do:

The Seattle City Council passed a resolution instructing Seattle City Light to take a hard look at the operation of the Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant (WPPSS-2). May 31, 2016

Write to your public utility. If your electric public utility is a member of Energy Northwest, write to the utility's board (for PUDs) or the mayor and city council (for municipal utilities) and ask that they use their position as plant owners to call for Energy Northwest to shut down the plant. Mention the leadership Seattle has shown (above).

See a list of utilities with an ownership share, and contact information.

After you have written, follow up with phone calls.

Write to your local newspaper, discussing the economic, earthquake, and plant design issues.

Contact the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which by contract buys and resells all power produced by the nuclear plant.

Join our campaign: Contact us for volunteer opportunities and to let us know how you would like to participate.

Decommissioning cost estimates have outpaced inflation fourfold since 1988. It will be cheaper to do it now than to wait. (Bloomberg News, 4/25/2016)

More on nuclear reactor decommissioning