Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant - Glen Rose, Texas
Posted by: 
txoilgas
N 32° 17.968 W 097° 48.142
14S E 612756 N 3574260
Located in Glen Rose, Texas, Comanche Peak welcomes visitors with an expansive visitor's center, videos and nuclear related information.
Waymark Code: WM5PJP
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/30/2009
Views: 24
The Comanche Peak nuclear power plant is a two-unit nuclear-fueled power plant located four and a half miles northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County and about 80 miles southwest of downtown Dallas. The plant is owned and operated by Luminant and has an operating capacity of 2,300 megawatts (two 1,150 megawatt units). The plant has approximately 1,300 employees.
Fuel for the Comanche Peak plant is uranium dioxide, enriched to about 4.5% uranium -235. The fuel is fabricated in small ceramic pellets and the pellets are clad in zirconium tubes or fuel rods. The fuel rods are bundled together to form fuel assemblies. Each pellet of uranium fuel produces as much heat energy as 149 gallons of oil; 157 gallons of gasoline; 1,780 pounds of coal; or 19,200 cubic feet of natural gas. There are more than 18,000,000 fuel pellets in each reactor.
Squaw Creek Reservoir provides cooling water for the power plant. The reservoir covers 3,275 surface acres with an average depth of 46 feet and it took approximately 2 years to fill. When both units of Comanche Peak are at full power, 2.2 million gallons of water are pumped through the plants main condensers.
More than 450,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured and more than 63,000 tons of reinforcing steel bar have been used in plant construction. The combined length of electrical conduit at Comanche Peak is more than 200 miles.