Satsop Nuclear Power Plant (aka WPPSS), Elma, WA
N 46° 57.608 W 123° 28.227
10T E 464207 N 5200841
These two 46-story tall concrete cooling towers can be seen for miles.
Waymark Code: WMH47K
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 05/19/2013
Views: 8
In the 1970s, a group of municipal power companies combined forces to launch an ambitious plan to build 5 nuclear power plants in Washington state, to create more than 6 Gigawatts of electricity annually. Three of the five plants were planned for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on the Columbia River, and two additional plants were to be built neat the Satsop River near Elma, Washington. The project was headed by the Washington Public Power Supply System or WPPSS (which quickly earned the nickname “Whoops”). The project was horribly over budget by the time it was only 75% complete; it was estimated that the project had run $960 MILLION over budget, and there was much building yet to do. The project was still not complete when, on March 28, 1979, the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, PA suffered a meltdown, and American citizens lost confidence in nuclear power. The combination of humongous budget overruns and the fear of a possible nuclear disaster in Washington, the plan was abandoned and the project has never been completed.
After years passed, the turbines and all other machinery for the reactors have been removed and sold. The 46 story tall concrete cooling towers remain and can be seen for many miles (and are even used by trans-continental flights as a landmark). The location has been converted into a mixed-use business park, where there is a commercial truck driving school, and a training program for drilling tunnels. There has been recent interest from Hollywood to use the site for the production of movies. Visiting the site is acceptable, and there is very little security (nor need for it). The concrete towers are fenced off but you can view them from just a few feet away, from the asphalt roads that cut thru the business park.
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