A Good Neighbor
Photo by Clemens Van Lay on Unsplash
Told by Charles Cruse
Originally appearing in Slackwater, Volume 6
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, located near Lusby, is one of the most important and well-known nuclear power facilities in the world. Conceived and designed in the 1960s and built and bought on line in the ‘70s, Calvert Cliffs was one of the first commercial nuclear plants in the United States. It played an important role in the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and was the first plant to have its license renewed in 2000. The plant has been recognized for its safety and environmental achievements, and construction of a third reactor has recently been proposed for Calvert cliffs.
Charles Cruse was Vice President of Nuclear Energy for Constellation Energy, which owned the Calvert Cliffs facility from 1996 to 2002. He retired in 2004 as Senior Vice President of Technical Services for Constellation Generation’s power plants, including Calvert Cliffs. Mr. Cruse talks about the plant’s importance and its role in the Southern Maryland community.
Bob Davies, probably the Company’s first nuclear engineer, related to me; some of the plant’s earliest history in some notes he had written. In the mid-‘60’s, slot machines in Southern Maryland were being outlawed and Louis Goldstein [then the State Comptroller] was concerned about Calvert County government. He wanted to attract an industry to the county to increase the real estate tax base. He wanted it to be clean, but not need too many county services.
Comptroller Goldstein met with Jack Penn, the chairman of the board of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, and suggested that the company’s next power plant be built in Calvert County. Goldstein offered to sell 985 acres of land that his family owned on the Chesapeake Bay.
The comptroller’s timing was excellent. The company was looking for a site for a new power plant and had looked at sites in Southern Maryland. After a number of studies, a decision was made by the company to propose building a generating plant using either fossil or nuclear fuel on the Goldstein property.
At the county zoning hearing for the plant in the spring of 1966, the Tri-County Council [of Southern Maryland]. The State Planning Department, Chamber of Commerce, and the Civic Federation of beaches all made positive comments. The neighbor to the immediate north of the plant submitted a letter of opposition, listing concerns about oil tanks and what would happen if the zoning was changed and someone other than BG&E purchased the site. The Chesapeake Bay Institute [at Johns Hopkins University] communicated that we should be concerned to preserve the natural resources and offered to help. There was also concern about the location of the proposed electric transmission lines from the plant.
On June 14, 1966, the Calvert County Commissioners approved the zoning change. Almost one year later, on May 29, 1967, BG&E announced plans to build the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. Calvert Cliffs would be the largest single investment of private capital in the state’s history and an economic windfall for Calvert County.
Cooling the plant’s condensers
Chesapeake Bay water is used to cool the plant’s condensers. There is one main condenser for each of the two units. There are six circulating water pumps per condenser, and each pumps about 200,000 gallons per minute. So it’s a very large use of bay water. Water is pulled from the deeper areas of the bay in front of the plant. It travels through a screen to limit the size of any debris or material reaching the pumps. The screen wash system rinses off fish and crabs that make their way to the screen.
The water then travels through the many tubes in the main condenser, cooling the steam used to generate power in the main turbines. The bay water is then returned to the Chesapeake. The returning water is discharged near the surface of the bay. The Calvert Cliffs discharge permit limits the total temperature increase in the bay water passing through the condenser to no more than 12 degrees Fahrenheit. By extracting bay water from the deeper, cooler areas of the bay and discharging to the warmer surface areas of the bay, the resulting temperature change experienced by marine life at the discharge is only around 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
A landmark court case
This process [of cooling the plant’s condensers] is not different from most other thermal power plants. What is important, and maybe unique, about Calver Cliffs in this regard is a landmark environmental court case filed in 1970 against the Atomic Energy Commission [AEC], the predecessor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The case is important because it was the first time federal agency compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, especially its provision requiring an Environmental Impact Statement [EIS], was tested in federal court. A group called the Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee [organized by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation] sued the Atomic Energy Commission over the review of non-nuclear environmental impacts of nuclear power plants before issuing a construction permit. The committee won the case. The court ruled that the AEC must comply with the direction of the National Environmental Policy Act.
Following this ruling, the AEC prepared environmental impact statements as part of all nuclear plant licensing. Many nuclear plants installed cooling towers, like those at the Chalk Point Power Station over in Charles County, which is a coal burning plant.
As it turned out, however, at Calvert Cliffs, the original plant design met the environmental requirements, and no cooling towers were ever erected at Calvert Cliffs because they were not needed. The towers were designed and would have been built if environmental data had indicated that the water used to cool the condensers and then discharged was damaging the bay.
When the court case was decided, construction on the Calvert Cliffs facility had been completed. The real impact of the court’s decision was on the construction of future nuclear power plants.
On Three Mile Island and safety
The Three Mile Island [TMI] accident [a partial core meltdown in one unit of a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania] occurred on March 28, 1979. I remember exactly where I was that day because TMI was the most serious accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States and it sent a shockwave across the industry. I was working on the ninth floor of our Baltimore headquarters as supervisor of instrumentation and control engineering for our power plants, including Calvert Cliffs. That was well before the Internet, and I recall we were all trying to get information on the radio as to what was happening at TMI.
We learned much later that the accident was caused by a combination of equipment failure and the inability of plant operators to understand the reactor’s condition. While no injuries were sustained and there were no measurable health effects on the population, it was very frightening to the residents near the plant. It caused a major economic loss to General Public Utilities, the owners of the plant.
The accident also initiated sweeping changes in the nuclear industry. There was a general loss of confidence nationwide in the safety of commercial nuclear power plants. The public reaction was heightened by problems communicating the situation at the plant immediately after the accident by both the utility and by government officials.
The situation was further compounded by the fact that the disaster movie, The China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda, was released just twelve days before the TMI accident. In the movie, the damaged reactor core melted through the steel reactor and through the concrete containment floor. At TMI, the fuel did not escape the reactor vessel and never came in contact with the containment floor. Nevertheless, the comparison was made and the public perception of the industry severely damaged.
The reaction by the industry and government was comprehensive. The industry created the Institute of Nuclear Power Operation to promote excellence in operator training and plant management. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission mandated numerous plant improvements. First, actions to prevent accidents, such as upgrading plant design, especially instrumentation systems, and identifying human performance as critical to plant safety, requiring improvements in plant staffing, operator training, and fitness for duty requirements. Second, actions to reduce the seriousness of accidents, including requiring the addition of equipment to mitigate accidents. And third, actions to protect the public through enhanced plans to provide an integrated federal, state, local, and utility response to an emergency.
All of these requirements caused hundreds of changes to Calvert Cliffs. It took years and probably more than a hundred million dollars to implement all the upgrades at the plant. We installed new computer systems, new instrumentation to assist the operators in diagnosing and mitigating plant problems, and a complete control room simulator to help train the operators. We made a decision to move the entire engineering support staff From Baltimore to Calvert Cliffs and constructed a new office building on the site to support the move. These improvements have resulted in significant improvements in safety and performance, not only to Calvert Cliffs but to all the nation’s nuclear power plants.
Relationship with the community
Overall, I think the relationship between Calvert Cliffs and the community has been very good. I’m sure that events over the years, like the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, cause increased anxiety in the community, but overall the plant has been a good neighbor.
Calvert Cliffs has paid $173 million in taxes to Calvert County between 1973 and 2006. It is the single largest taxpayer in the county. As a result, Calvert County residents enjoy the lowest tax rate in Maryland. Mary Krug, a former Calvert County Commissioner, has said, quote, when Calvert Cliffs located here, we went virtually overnight from one of the poorest counties in the state to one of the richest, end quote. Calvert Cliffs brought 800-plus fulltime jobs to the county. It is the single largest private employer in the county.
