Design
Oyster Creek is a single unit 636 MWe boiling water reactor power plant which first came online on December 1, 1969; it is the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the United States. Located 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 75 miles south of New York City, the plant gets its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, a brackish estuary that empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Barnegat Inlet.
Oyster Creek was originally licensed for 40 years, but in April 2009 its license was extended for another 20 years by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Based on the Atomic Energy Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issues licenses for commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years and allows these licenses to be renewed for up to another 20 years. This original 40-year term for reactor licenses was based on economic and antitrust considerations -- not on limitations of nuclear technology. Due to this selected period, however, some structures and components may have been engineered on the basis of an expected 40-year service life. "
Read more about this topic: Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station
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