1 Site Description Report Fort Calhoun Station 9610 Power Lane Blair, NE 68008 March 2 , 2009 1.0 Background and Objectives The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of developing 316(b) cooling water intake structure requirements that reflect the best technology available (BTA) for minimizing adverse environmental impact for all existing power plants and manufacturing facilities. As part of this process, EPA staff is visiting electric generators and manufacturers to better understand th e cooling water intake structure (CWI S) technologies in use at facilities, including the site

specific characteristics of each facility and how these affect the selection and performance of CWI S technologies. EPA is also visiting facilities to better unde rstand cooling water use and specific issues or technologies that can affect 316(b) compliance. As part of its site visit to the North Omaha Station , EPA also collected information on Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) Fort Calhoun Station
. 2.0 Facility De scription Fort Calhoun is located about 5 miles northwest of the town of Fort Calhoun in eastern Nebraska . The facility operates under NPDES permit NE0000418 ; the permit was renewed on Ju ly 1 , 20 07
. 3.0 Electricity Generation and Transmission Fort Calhoun is a 492 MW nuclear generating station with one reactor. I t began operations in 19 73
. The capacity utilization rate (CUR) is approximately 8 5 %. A major outage is scheduled every 18 months, and minor screen maintenance is conducted on a frequent basis
. 1 The transmission sy stem is owned by OPPD but is operated by a different business unit of the company
. 4.0 Cooling Water System and Intake Structure Fort Calhoun withdraws once

- through cooling water from a CWI S on the shoreline of the Missouri River (at rive r mile 645.8)
. Water passes through a trash rack and then into 6 intake bay s; each intake bay has a coarse mesh (3/8”)

1 Materials provided by facility representatives noted that all 6 screens are overhauled during each outage. The cost per screen is nearly $80,000.2 traveling screen and each pair of bay s feeds a circulating water pump. There are three circulating pumps, each with a capacity of 172.8 million gallon s per day ( mgd, or 120,000 gallons per minute [gpm]) . In total, the facility ’s design intake flow (DIF) is 518.4 mg d and the average actual intake flow (AIF) is 451 mgd. The design through

- screen velocity ranged is 1.75 feet per second (fp s). 2 5.0 Impingement and Entrainment Information Facilit y representatives noted that a 2mm screen would have clogging problems and likely affect the facility ’s ability to maintain safe water levels. 6.0 Cooling Tower Feasibility Facilit y representatives have not considered closed

- cy cle cooling for Fort Calhoun. They

noted a number of problems associated with retrofitting a closed

cy cle recirculating s ys tem (CCRS): limited land availability and potential conflicts with the NRC ope rating license. 7.0 Debris Handling Fort Calhoun has significant problems with debris, particularl y with gravel in the intake water due to intake’s location on the bedrock bottom of river. Materials provided b y facility representatives noted that current de bris loading poses a substantial challenge for maintaining sufficient water flow; an y additional operational challenges might result in nuclear safety concerns. In addition to the screen overhauls which incur an annualized cost of approximately $315,000 , the facility must also clean its condenser once per ye ar, at a cost of approximately $25 3 ,000. Facilit y representatives noted that Fort Calhoun is considering installing a weir wall similar to that in place at Cooper Nuclear Station. 3 The facility

is als o able to recirculate warm water to the intake in winter to address icing concerns. 8.0 Repowering/Future Uses Fort Calhoun is currently performing an uprating; the facility recently installed a new, larger condenser. Facility representatives noted that a design criterion was to minimize the time that circulation pumps are offline, as this allows suspended sediment to settle out in the condenser.

2 The through

- screen velocity at normal water level is 1.63 fps; at low w ater, it is 2.64 fps and at high wa ter 0.99 fps. 3 See the site visit report for Cooper Station.3

9.0 Cooling Ponds There are no cooling ponds onsite. 10.0 Ownership OPPD is a public utility

that is owned b y the s tate of Nebraska. The entire state is supplied by

public power. 11.0 316(a) The permits for all OPPD facilities have thermal discharge limits; facility representatives noted that the most troublesome time of y ear for meeting these limits was in the summer, w hen the ambient water temperatures are highest. They added that they

have not had any

problems meeting state water quality standards, though. 12.0 Ash Handling Fort Calhoun does not use coal as a fuel and therefore has no ash ponds. 13.0 Air Emissions Controls EPA did not collect any

information about air controls at this site. 14.0 Additional Information Materials provided b y the facilit y indicate that they will be testing Passavant Geiger screens at Fort Calhoun. Attachments Attachment A Fort Calhoun Description Attachment B Engineering Diagrams Attachment C In formation on Debris4

Attachment A

— Fort Calhoun Description Please see DCN 10

- 6519A accompanying this document Attachment B

— Engineering Diagrams Please see DCN 10

- 6519B accompany ing this document Attachment C

— Information on Debris Please see DCN 10

- 6519C accompany ing this document