Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
Millstone is a nuclear power plant that has been running since 1970 and provides 47% of Connecticut’s electricity along with around 90% of its carbon-free electricity, supports nearly 4000 jobs, and hopes to be the future site to the data center. NE Edge and Dominion Energy, the owners and operators of the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, presented the idea to town leaders in early 2023. The data center is planned to occupy less than 5% of Millstone’s 526-acre site and would draw electricity directly from the plant which they described as environmentally friendly, minimally disruptive and economically beneficial for the area. The Millstone site covers about 500 acers which was built specifically to use the Long Island Sound that’s next to it as a source of secondary cooling. Over the years the plant has had several safety-related shut downs and even has been put on enhanced examination status by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Importance of Millstone to Waterford
Though the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant has had troubles through the years and still has complaints now, Millstone still is a major importance to Waterford and southeastern Connecticut as a whole for electricity, jobs, and carbon-free energy.
Millstone provides:
-47% of Ct’s Electricity and about 15% of power on the New England grid
-90% of Ct’s Carbon-Free Energy
-Supports nearly 4000 jobs and directly employs 1080 people at it’s Waterford facility
-Contributes about 30% of Waterford’s tax base
-According to a study commissioned by Dominion in 2011, the facility generates 1.2 billion dollars annually in economic benefits which includes nearly 34 million in state and local tax revenues
-The Company donates thousands of dollars every year to local communities for causes such as medical care, food security, and education
-Because of closures of other New England nuclear power plants like the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, if Millstone or any other nuclear power plants were to close, the loss of nuclear power would be replaced almost entirely of fossil fuels significantly increasing Ct’s carbon emissions
History of Millstone
Authorized in its construction permit on May 19th 1966 and finished building in October 1970, the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant began it’s operations on December 28th 1970. Named after the granite quarry it was built on, which had made millstones for around 200 years. It’s Unit 1 had generated about 660 mega watts of electricity and in 1975 and 1986 two more units were added, making it the largest power generator in New England and only multi-unit nuclear plant of the region. But in 1992, a nuclear engineer at the plant warned federal officials that the facility was not properly disposing its spent fuel rods and that its cooling systems were insufficient in the case of an emergency. Four years later, Unit 1 was permanently shut down by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for safety violations, with Units 2 and 3 being allowed to restart. In 1999, the plant’s operators at that time Northeast Utilities agreed to pay 10 million dollars in fines for 25 counts of lying to federal investigators and for having falsified environmental reports, admitting that hydrazine, a toxic chemical used to reduce corrosion of pipes, had been flowing into Long Island Sound at a rate of one gallon an hour during 1996 and that testers at the company had diluted their samples with ocean water to hide the problem from Federal regulators. Northeast Nuclear Energy Company, Northeast Utilities’ subsidiary, also paid an additional 5 million dollars for making 19 false statements to federal regulators in the promotion of unqualified plant operators. In 2001, Dominion Energy, one of the nation’s largest suppliers and transporters of energy, officially purchased Millstone from Northeast Utilities for 1.28 billion dollars, buying Units 1 and 2 fully taking on the responsibility of decommissioning Unit 1 along with buying 93.47% of Unit 3 (The rest being owned by the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company and the Green Mountain Power Corporation). In 2016, Domain started to threaten to close the plant due to it no longer being competitive against extremely low-price natural gas that was powering most of the electrical plants in the region. The company eventually threatened to shut the plants down in 2023 if an agreement wasn’t reached by March 15th, 2019 and by the very last day agreements were finally made giving Millstone a 10 year contract. The licenses of the two units run out in 2035 and 2045