The Catawba Nuclear Station is a nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

 located on a 391 acres (1.6 km²) peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

, called "Concord Peninsula", that reaches out into Lake Wylie

Lake Wylie, South Carolina

Lake Wylie is a census-designated place in York County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,061 at the 2000 census. Lake Wylie is located on a peninsula along the shore of Lake Wylie, a reservoir that was named for Dr. W...

, in York, South Carolina

York, South Carolina

York is a small city in York County, South Carolina, United States. The city of York is also the county seat of York County. The population was approximately 6,985 at the 2000 census and the 2009 population estimate for the city...

. Catawba utilizes a pair of Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric Company

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...

 four-loop pressurized water reactor

Pressurized water reactor

Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...

s.

The Catawba plant is the largest in the State (although, with three reactors, the Oconee plant has the most nuclear capacity in the southeastern United States).

As a part of the Megatons to Megawatts Program

Megatons to Megawatts Program

The Megatons to Megawatts Program is the name given to the program that implemented the 1993 United States-Russia nonproliferation agreement to convert high-enriched uranium taken from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched-uranium for nuclear fuel.-Extent of program since 1995:From...

 Catawba was one of the plants that received and tested 4 fuel assemblies containing MOX fuel

MOX fuel

Mixed oxide fuel, commonly referred to as MOX fuel, is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material. MOX fuel contains plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an alternative to the low-enriched uranium fuel used in the...

 with the plutonium

Plutonium

Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...

 supplied from old weapons programs. Because concerns of nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...

 are greater with fuel containing plutonium, special precautions and added security were used around the new fuel. The 4 test assemblies did not perform as expected and at least at present those plans are shelved.

Ownership

• Unit 1:
  • Operator : Duke Power
  • Owners: North Carolina Electric Member Corporation (~62%), Duke Energy Corporation (~38%)
• Unit 2:
  • Operator: Duke Power
  • Owners: North Carolina Municipal Power Agency (75), Piedmont Municipal Power Agency (25)

Surrounding population

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...

defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16.1 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80.5 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16.1 km) of Catawba was 213,407, an increase of 53.3 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80.5 km) was 2,559,394, an increase of 25.0 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Charlotte (17 miles to city center).

Seismic risk

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Catawba was 1 in 27,027, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.