No News is Good News

The State summaries normally lead off with an article spotlighting the local nuclear industry.  For the State of Washington, however, we’ve omitted the article to make a point.  There is an abundance of news material on the problems encountered with nuclear construction in this State from which to choose, much of it well researched and probably quite accurate.  But the Washington Public Power Supply System, the original licensee, eventually overcame these difficulties.   In 2002, re-named the Columbia reactor (formerly WNP-2) operated at just over 90 percent of its capacity: it operated safely and efficiently. Washington’s lone nuclear power plant produced 9 percent of the total electricity in a State noted for massive hydropower resources.   In the process, it produced no CO2 emissions, no nitrous oxide emissions, no sulfuric emissions, and no headlines—all of which probably came as good news to Energy Northwest.

Washington Nuclear Highlights

In 2008, the State of Washington ranked 28th in nuclear capacity and 27th in nuclear generation. Monthly and cumulative nuclear generation and annual nuclear capacity for each State and each reactor is reported in a table elsewhere on this site.

Nuclear Generation in Washington, 1960 through 2003 Million Kilowatt Hours

Sources: Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data Report 1999, and Electric Power Annual, Volume 1, 2001, and EIA Survey Form 906.

Competing Fuels

Hydro Power has helped keep Washington's electricity prices low for decades.  No other State is as dependent on water for its electric power.  Washington has the only hydro plant appearing in the top 20 of EIA's list of 100 largest power plants in the United States.  In fact, the Grand Coulee dam is not merely in the top 20:  it is number one. 

License Renewal

No request is pending or immediately anticipated for license renewal of Columbia unit 1.  According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the current license expires in 2023.

Information on the current status of all license renewal applications appears on the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov .  To locate the data on this site, select "index" at the top and then choose the letter "l."  Click on "license renewal."

Air Quality in Washington

Total greenhouse emissions for the electric power industry of each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia, are reported for the most current data year.

Of the 50 States plus the District of Columbia, the electric industry of the State of Washington ranked 39th highest in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 2007. The State's electric industry ranked 43rd highest in sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions and 40th highest in nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions.