Document ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2008-0667-0025
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2010-11-05T04:00Z

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 the cooling water intake structure (CWIS) technologies in use at facilities, including the site-specific characteristics of each facility and how these affect the selection and performance of CWIS technologies.  EPA is also visiting facilities to better understand 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 Description

      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 July 1, 2007.

3.0 Electricity Generation and Transmission
      
      Fort Calhoun is a 492 MW nuclear generating station with one reactor.  It began operations in 1973.  The capacity utilization rate (CUR) is approximately 85%.
      
      A major outage is scheduled every 18 months, and minor screen maintenance is conducted on a frequent basis.
      
      The transmission system 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 CWIS on the shoreline of the Missouri River (at river mile 645.8).  Water passes through a trash rack and then into 6 intake bays; each intake bay has a coarse mesh (3/8") traveling screen and each pair of bays feeds a circulating water pump.  There are three circulating pumps, each with a capacity of 172.8 million gallons per day (mgd, or 120,000 gallons per minute [gpm]).  In total, the facility's design intake flow (DIF) is 518.4 mgd and the average actual intake flow (AIF) is 451 mgd.  The design through-screen velocity ranged is 1.75 feet per second (fps).

5.0 Impingement and Entrainment Information

      Facility 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

      Facility representatives have not considered closed-cycle cooling for Fort Calhoun.  They noted a number of problems associated with retrofitting a closed-cycle recirculating system (CCRS): limited land availability and potential conflicts with the NRC operating license.

7.0 Debris Handling

      Fort Calhoun has significant problems with debris, particularly with gravel in the intake water due to intake's location on the bedrock bottom of river.  Materials provided by facility representatives noted that current debris loading poses a substantial challenge for maintaining sufficient water flow; any 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 year, at a cost of approximately $253,000.
      
      Facility representatives noted that Fort Calhoun is considering installing a weir wall similar to that in place at Cooper Nuclear Station.
      
      The facility is also 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.

9.0 Cooling Ponds
	
      There are no cooling ponds onsite.
      
10.0 Ownership
      
      OPPD is a public utility that is owned by the state 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 year for meeting these limits was in the summer, when 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 by the facility indicate that they will be testing Passavant Geiger screens at Fort Calhoun.
      
Attachments

Attachment A	Fort Calhoun Description
Attachment B	Engineering Diagrams
Attachment C	Information on Debris

Attachment A -- Fort Calhoun Description

Please see DCN 10-6519A accompanying this document

Attachment B -- Engineering Diagrams

Please see DCN 10-6519B accompanying this document

Attachment C -- Information on Debris

Please see DCN 10-6519C accompanying this document