physics

Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station

Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station rather than just read about it. In short: The Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station is an American nuclear power plant that is located 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Baltimore and 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Harrisburg in Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Situated close to the Susquehanna River, it is three miles north of the Maryland border.

Key takeaways

Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station is an American nuclear power plant that is located 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Baltimore and 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Harrisburg in Peach Bottom Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Situated close to the Susquehanna River, it is three miles north of the Maryland border.

History The Philadelphia Electric Company (later "PECO") was a pioneer in the commercial nuclear industry when it ordered Peach Bottom Unit 1 in 1958. The U.S.'s first nuclear power plant (the Shippingport Atomic Power Station) had gone on-line a year earlier. Peach Bottom Unit 1 was an experimental helium-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor. The reactor was fueled by a mixed 232Th-235U fuel. It operated from 1966 to 1974. Peach Bottom Units 2 and 3, General Electric boiling water reactors, went on-line in 1974, and are still in operation on the 620-acre (2.5 km2) site today. Both Units 2 and 3, originally rated at 3,514 megawatts thermal (MWth), equivalent to about 1,180 megawatts of electricity (MWe) each, were uprated to 4,016 megawatts thermal (MWth), equivalent to about 1,382 megawatts net of electricity (MWe) each in 2018. Units 2 and 3 were originally licensed to operate until 2013 and 2014, respectively. Their licenses were extended until 2033 and 2034 and then, in 2020 they were extended to 2053 and 2054. Peach Bottom is currently operated by Constellation Energy (formerly a division of PECO's parent company, Exelon, and before that it was known as Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E), the oldest gas utility in the country) and is jointly owned by Constellation (50%) and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) Power LLC (formerly Public Service Electric and Gas) (50%). Peach Bottom was one of the plants analyzed in the NUREG-1150 safety analysis study.

Electricity production

Surrounding population

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity. The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Peach Bottom was 46,536, an increase of 7.2 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 km) was 5,526,343, an increase of 10.6 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Baltimore (36 miles to city center). Cities within 50 miles:

Pennsylvania Harrisburg (Capital) (48 mi/78 km) Maryland Baltimore (37 mi/60 km) Delaware Wilmington (38 mi/61 km)

Safety concerns

In 1987, PECO was ordered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to indefinitely shutdown Peach Bottom-2 and -3 on March 31 due to operator misconduct, corporate malfeasance, and blatant disregard for the health and safety of the area. . Among the incidents cited by the NRC: security guards were overworked, one guard was found asleep on the job, 36,000 gallons of "mildly radioactive water" leaked into the Susquehanna River, PECO mislaid data on radioactive waste classification causing misclassification of a waste shipment, and a major fire occurred in the maintenance cage of the Unit 3 turbine building on March 4, 1987. Blame was not simply placed on the operators. "Latent organizational weakness" was targeted by industry experts and regulators alike. INPO President Zack Pate came to the conclusion that "Major changes in the corporate culture at PECO are required." In September 1988, NRC Chairman Lando Zech told senior management officials of PECO, "Your operators certainly made mistakes, no question about that. Your corporate management problems are just as serious." Clearly, a culture characterized by low morale and apathy prevailed. By April 1988, this emphasis on mismanagement contributed to the President of PECO resigning as well as to the retirement of the CEO. Robert P. Crosby became the primary Organization Development influence during the PECO Nuclear turnaround following the Peach Bottom shut down. He used The Interpersonal Gap model by John L. Wallen along with a unique T-group method known as Conflict Management (and later as Tough Stuff in other business applications) to speed culture change, and applied his own version of Daryl Conner's Sponsor Agent Target model to improving and shortening outage management. By 1996, both Limerick and Peach Bottom were designated excellent by INPO, and given strong Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance (SALP) ratings by the NRC. In 1999, PECO Nuclear eliminated their Organization Development positions as part of cost cutting initiative. In 2007, Kerry Beal videotaped Peach Bottom security guards sleeping on the job. Beal had previously tried to notify supervisors at Wackenhut Corp. and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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 Peach Bottom was 1 in 41,667; according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station

In research: Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in York County, Pennsylvania, Energy infrastructure completed in 1966, Energy infrastructure completed in 1974, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station in simple terms?

Why does Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station.