Towns and Nature: Shippingport, PA: 1976-2019 2.5gw Bruce Mansfield & 1957+1976&1987 1.8gw Beaver Valley Power Plants and FGD Gypsum

Bruce Mansfield: (Satellite)

1976&1987 Beaver Valley: (Satellite)

FGD Gypsum: (Satellite)

The first commercial power nuclear reactor, Shippingport Atomic Power Station, was built on this site in 1957.

John Gallagher posted
The shutdown Bruce Mansfield coal plant in Shippingport, PA taken from my office window at the Beaver Valley Power Station.
Tom Runyon: I think that burning up the scrubbers and stack was just too costly to repair. I only worked there from 2002-2012. We dealt with a lot of issues over that time.
Cory Stansbury: Tom Runyon They weren't allowed to pipe fly ash to little blue run pond anymore, either. They had to barge it and send it up-river. I'm guessing that wasn't cheap.

2013 11:16 video of a tour of Bruce Mansfield "largest coal-fired plant in the First Energy System"

HistoricPittsburgh
Description: Three plants are featured in this image. Above the bridge is the coal-fired Bruce Mansfield Plant. Directly below the bridge are the cooling tower and containment dome of Beaver Valley Power Station #1. Beaver Valley Power Station #2 is under construction; the pit to the right the cooling tower will become the containment dome for #2. At the bottom of the image is the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, located on the Ohio River in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. It was opened by President Dwight Eisenhower on May 26, 1958, as a part of the “Atoms for Peace” program following World War II. Shippingport was the first commercial, central electric-generation station in the United States that utilized nuclear energy. The plant was designed by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, who worked in conjunction with the Division of Naval Reactors of the Atomic Energy Commission. Power first originated from the Shippingport station on December 18, 1957, providing energy to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Twenty years later it became home to the United States’ first light water breeder reactor. The station was jointly run by the Duquesne Light Company and the United States Department of Energy. In 1984 the United States government decommissioned the plant and began the process of dismantling the facility. In 1989 dismantling of the plant was completed, making the Shippingport Atomic Power Station the first nuclear plant to be decommissioned and dismantled.

Bob Ciminel posted
In 1970, I began my career in commercial nuclear power at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station at the bottom of the photo. Beaver Valley Unit 1 and the Bruce Mansfield plant were both under construction. I transferred to Beaver Valley in 1974 and spent the next three years putting it into operation. This photo was taken in 1976. Both Beaver Valley Unit 1 and Bruce Mansfield were operating and the reactor containment excavation for Beaver Valley Unit 2 is being dug.
Don Conner: I worked at the Mansfield Plant from 1974 to 1987. I remember the old nuclear plant. When the excavation began for the old nuclear plant an almost complete Mammoth skeleton was found. It was eventually sent to a museum. Smithsonian I believe.
Bob Ciminel: Don Conner I remember that being an urban legend at SAPS.
Don Conner: Bob Ciminel I seen the tusks at a local home before they were crated and shipped.
Neil Mor: I worked at the Shippingport Atomic Power Plant from 1980-1984 and Beaver Valley from 1984 to 2017. Good plants. BV 1&2 were uprated around 2007. They went from 888 to 1000 mwe and their operating licenses were extended 20 years.
[There are several more interesting comments about the history of Shppingport Atomic Power Station.]

The Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant avoids 12t of CO2 every year. [power-technology]

Like some of the nuclear plants in Illinois, state politics has helped to keep this plant running. [StateImpact] (I wonder if the power company also used bribes like ComEd did.)

Adam Horniak posted, cropped, 2019
This is "Power Alley" in Shippingport PA. The lower plant, (three cooling towers) is Bruce Mansfield coal power station and the two upper cooling towers are Beaver Valley Nuke Power Station. Since this picture was taken, the Bruce Mansfield plant has been shut down. I worked at Beaver Valley for over 30 years. This picture was taken by me as we were on approach to Pittsburgh Airport in a Southwest Jet. That is the Ohio River...
Joseph Hallstrom: Don't forget the original Shippingsport Nuclear plant - the 1st in the USA. It was next door to Beaver Valley.

It is interesting that different sources specify different megawatt capacities.

"Unit 1: 913.7 MW (1976), Unit 2: 913.7 MW (1977), Unit 3: 913.7 MW (1980)" It was supercritical and burned bituminous coal. Units 1 & 2 were retired in Feb 2019. Unit 3 was deactivated in Nov 2019. The plant was idled in Feb 2016 "due to the low prices for electricity." [gem] I'm reminded that Pennsylvania is one of the areas in the US that had big shale formations that now produce lots of natural gas because of fracking.

Richard Smith posted
Circa 1982 D. Bruce Mansfield plant.
Photo was taken for the grand opening and tour after unit three came on line.

Comments on Richard's post

Ron Franko posted three photos with the comment: "Bruce Mansfield Power Plant taken 8/12/22"

[From some comments: the stacks are 950' and 650'. The cooling towers are 500'.]

Bill Salm: Wow! 2500 megs. Incredible.

Dana Rukse posted seven photos with the comment: "A few from the Bruce Mansfield Plant."

Kirk James Watson Sr. posted two phots with the comment: "Bruce Mansfield and Beaver Valley power stations back in 2010 when all 5 units were cooking. They say the heat from those two plants used to influence the local weather patterns."

[There are several comments about the plant affecting the local weather including the generation of snow from the cooling towers.]

Wayne Karberg posted
Bruce Mansfield Unit #3 (950MW GE S2 Turbine) just before "stacking iron". The longest shaft length GE ever made. I was the turbine generator erector for this unit. A great place to work! In Crossview Stereo.
Chris Austin: Looks similar to Homer City unit #3.
[There are some interesting comments about operating and tripping off line.]

Charlie Anthony posted
I so want to crack open a corona with a beach chair and umbrella. Hedge rows of FGD gypsum.
Mike Stover: And people in America have no idea why American homes have been built with drywall since the 70s or where the drywall comes from. The Bruce Mansfield plant in Western PA has a conveyor belt that runs from the scrubbers out from the plant, under a road, and into a drywall factory.
[Gypsum is a byproduct of scrubbers that use pre-ground limestone. So when they shutdown the power plant, they also shutdown a drywall factory.]
Charlie Anthony: Mike Stover all for costly environmental compliance. None of it pays for itself. The slurry is harsh on our warman pumps. I manage the FGD system.
Mike Stover: Look up "Baby Blue" lake in South West PA. First Energy pumps the slurry from Bruce Mansfield, down the Ohio River several miles then up over the mountain to a lake created by the largest earthen dam in America. Kinda cool but the lake has no fish and there are no bugs or life anywhere near it. Gets really creepy quiet at night. [I think he means Little blue Run Lake.]
Robert Kish: Bruce Mansfield Plant is shut down at this time Little Blue Run is being capped.

Wayne Karberg posted
Tops-Off alignment of the original HP turbine section, Bruce Mansfield U3. Circa 1979, In crossview stereo. If you look close, you can see the tightwire strung through the centerline. A real tripping hazard if there ever was one!
You can screenshot the picture, then switch it for parallel view (for a typical viewer) if you download Stereophotomaker freeware (google it), open it with that software, and click the red-blue arrow button at the top (windows only). You can also print stereo cards within that software, as well as a host of other stereo editing. BTW, this was photographed with film. Or, you can just go here for a tutorial to view it in 3D as-is, WITHOUT a viewer. https://www.studio3d.com/pages2/freeview.html

The chain hoists in the rigging are interesting. I presume that allows them to lower the different corners to get a better mating with the foundation.

Wayne Karberg posted
Setting the (middle) standard. Bruce Mansfield Unit #3 turbine, Circa 1979. In crossview stereo.

Some videos of the Jan 10, 2018 fire in Units 1 and 2.

Thomas Gray: Unit 3 was off, unit 2 wasn’t, unit 1 was coming off. We only had one cranker When unit 1 came off and the auxiliaries were switched the other cranked tripped , black out! Unit 2 tripped and scrubber inlets didn’t close so all of the heat from both boilers went straight up the flues.

Ron R Pytash: The fires in both units were caused by heat transferring from the boilers to the Scrubbers and stack liners which were flake glass and highly flammable. The fans and scrubber pumps normally for cooling when a boiler trips were not available because 1 cranker had been out of service needing repair. As one of the units was being taken off line #2 cranker tripped causing a loss of power to the unit that was being taken off hence no fans for cooling and no scrubber pumps to cool the gas flow from the boiler. The loss of the #2 cranker which was powering the air compressors caused a lose of air to the remaining unit, the units have to have air to operate so that unit tripped with no power to operate fans and scrubber pumps for cooling the flue gas. Unit 3 was having an outage which saved it. Operators did all they could do but with no electricity not much could be done.

[Some of the comments discuss deaths that have happened at the plant including two workers killed.]

Comments on videos post

Bruce Mansfield had one of the more impressive toxic waste lists that I have seen.
Arsenic Waste: 119,711 pounds
Air Release: 2,211 pounds
Land Release (surface impoundment): 117,500 pounds
Chromium Waste: 186,050 pounds
Air Release: 2,400 pounds
Water Release (Ohio River): 250 pounds
Land Release (landfill): 183,400 pounds
Dioxin Waste: 3.66 grams
Air Release: 3.66 grams
Lead Waste: 106,234 pounds
Air Release: 2,010 pounds
Water Release (Ohio River): 224 pounds
Land Release (landfill): 104,000 pounds
Mercury Waste: 1,425 pounds
Air Release: 185 pounds
Land Release (landfill): 1,240 pounds
Nickel Waste: 149,555 pounds
Air Release: 2,305 pounds
Water Release (Ohio River): 250 pounds
Land Release (landfill): 147,000 pounds
Selenium Waste: 43,876 pounds
Air Release: 5,006 pounds
Water Release (Ohio River): 250 pounds
Land Release (landfill): 38,620 pounds
[gem]

Chris Austin posted
Beaver Valley . 2012 I was on the Generator/ Exciter crew. Photo of exciter before the doghouse was back over it.

Bob Ciminel posted
Initial core load at Shippingport Atomic Power Station, 1953. I did rad surveys in that building in 1970.
Ralph Zupo: My beginning in the nuclear industry. 1982-1984 as a Defueling Shift Supervisor, shutdown and decommissioning. A unique expierence.
[The comments include several former employees talking about working there.]