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Columbia Station officials acknowledged the past problems, and said Tuesday the condenser coils project in particular should significantly improve the plant’s reliability.
The condenser coils removes water from steam produced by uranium fuel rods that heat reactor water up to 900 degrees. The dry steam is then fed into four turbines spinning a generator at 1,800 rpm.
But the condenser coils tubes installed when the plant was built in the early 1980s are brass, said Carl Golightly, who analyzes plant shutdowns for the Columbia Generating Station. Some have burst due to corrosion, which has also caused contaminated water in the reactor.
Wednesday, workers were cutting those tube assemblies loose so they can be removed through a hole cut through thick concrete walls. They will be replaced with more reliable titanium tubes.
Energy Northwest, which owns Columbia Station, has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the plant’s operating license through 2043. The original 40-year license expires in 2024.
Golightly said projections of the plant’s operating life were extremely conservative when it was designed in the 1970s.
“When we get to 40 years, we easily have another 30 to 40 years,” he said.
Golightly, addressing concerns raised by the catastrophe at the nuclear plants at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, also said the plant can probably withstand earthquakes stronger than the 7.3 magnitude estimate used in construction.
A new U.S. Geological Survey analysis found earthquake fault lines that extend across the Cascade Mountains eastward as far as Pasco.