Columbia Generating Station is a nuclear commercial energy facility owned and operated by Energy Northwest, a Washington state, not-for-profit joint operating agency. Located 10 miles north of Richland, Washington, Columbia was licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 1983 – first produced electricity in May 1984 and entered commercial operation in December 1984.
Producing 1,190 megawatts of electricity – approximately 10% of the electricity generated in Washington state – Columbia Generating Station is features 6 low-profile fan-driven cooling towers fed by the nearby Columbia River. Columbia set a record for electricity generation during a refueling outage year in 2013 by sending 8.4 million megawatt hours of electricity to the regional power grid. In 2012, a non-outage year, the plant generated a record 9.3 million megawatt hours of electricity for the regional power grid.
Valve World Americas spoke with Columbia Generating Station’s AOV (Air Operated Valve) Engineer Michael Rhodes to discuss his experiences in the nuclear industry and the use of valves in his work.
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