Nuclear power plant near Berwyn Heights
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in the United States located in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay in the Pacific Ocean, 65 kilometers from Washington, D.C. Construction of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant began in 1968, and the first of two reactors was launched in 1975. Both reactors of the plant are of the PWR type and have a capacity of 918 and 911 MW, respectively. Thus, the total capacity of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is 1,829 MW. The decommissioning date for the nuclear power plant’s reactors is currently 2036.
In 2005, U.S. President (at the time) George W. Bush visited the Calvert-Cliffs nuclear power plant near Washington.
The waters of the Chesapeake Bay, due to water discharged into it from the nuclear power plant, have become warmer. For this reason, shellfish and plankton are growing faster, which attracts fish. Therefore, the area near the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is a favorite fishing spot.
In 2008, the plant’s second reactor set a world record for capacity utilization of 101.37% of installed capacity.
There are plans to expand the plant and build a third reactor with a capacity close to the sum of the capacities of the existing two, but these data have not yet been confirmed in practice.
In 1989 both units at Calvert-Cliffs were shut down because of noncompliance with safety regulations – there was no automatic switching on of diesel generators, the core temperature monitoring instruments gave out wrong information – and because one of the workers died. The events took place shortly after the IAEA inspection. The first reactor did not start up until the fall of 1990, the second reactor in the spring of 1991.
