Brunswick Nuclear Generating Station

Infobox NPP
Picture=Brunswick NPP.jpg
Pic_des=Brunswick NPP
Status=O
Utility=Progress EnergyThe Brunswick nuclear power plant, named for the county in which it is located, covers 1,200 acres (4.9 km²). The site is adjacent to the town of Southport, North Carolina and to wetlands and woodlands.

The site contains two General Electric boiling water reactors, which are cooled by water collected from the Cape Fear River and discharged into the Atlantic Ocean.

The majority owner (81.7 %) and operator of the Brunswick nuclear plant is the Progress Energy Corporation. The North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency owns the remaining 18.3 %.

The Brunswick plant is unusual in that it does not have the large cooling towers that are normally associated with nuclear power plants. The plant's proximity to the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean allowed the designers to forgo the expense of the cooling towers and instead take in cooling water from the Cape Fear river and discharge it into the Atlantic off the coast of Oak Island. Fish, crustaceans, and other debris are removed from the cooling water via an elaborate filtration system. The water then flows through the nuclear plant and discharges into a five mile long canal. The canal actually passes under the Intra-Coastal Waterway at one point.

External links

*http://www.nukeworker.com/pictures/displayimage_97_3.html
* [http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/brunswick.html DoE Page]