50 years on, Oconee Nuclear Station still powering Upstate growth - Greenville Journal

50 years on, Oconee Nuclear Station still powering Upstate growth - GREENVILLE JOURNAL

Imagine, if you can, what the Upstate would be like without the twin jewels of lakes Keowee and Jocassee.

That Oconee and Pickens counties enjoy two of South Carolina’s most picturesque lakes comes down to ambitious plans Duke Energy began developing nearly 70 years ago to build the vast infrastructure to support what ultimately became the Oconee Nuclear Station.

Since the reactor in Unit 1 went operational in 1973, the nuclear station on the southern end of Lake Keowee has provided the electricity powering the Upstate’s remarkable economic and population growth in the ensuing decades.

The significance of the project is hard to overestimate. What is certain is without the abundant power the Oconee Nuclear Station has provided for half a century, the Upstate would likely have never become South Carolina’s principal industrial hub.

An ambitious plan

Planning for the eventual Oconee Nuclear Station began at the dawn of the Atomic Age in the early 1950s when Duke Power — now Duke Energy — leaders looked to the future energy demands of a Southeast showing the first signs of rapid growth, according to Steve Snider, Duke Energy vice president in charge of the Oconee facility.

The scope of the project that emerged was massive. Acquiring the thousands of acres of property required took years.

The result was a sprawling enterprise begun in 1967 that produced the two reservoirs — Keowee and Jocassee — which supplied both hydroelectric power and cooling water for the three nuclear reactors comprising the Oconee plant.

The gargantuan scale of the project is hard to appreciate at ground level, which is why a diorama depicting the project and found within the education center adjacent to the plant is so helpful.

Looking down on the miniature model of the Keowee-Toxaway project and the Oconee Nuclear Station, it becomes readily apparent how interconnected the whole complex of lakes and power generation units are, according to Mikayla Kreuzberger with Duke corporate communications and head of the World of Energy education center adjacent to the nuclear power station.

On the lower end of the complex, the Keowee Hydro Station provides reliable, renewable energy to the power grid and key backup power to the nuclear plant. On the upper end, near the North Carolina line, the Bad Creek pumped storage facility provides additional hydroelectric generation capacity during peak demands on the power grid.

The three nuclear units at Oconee came online in 1973 and 1974 and are capable of generating 2,554 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.9 million homes.

Powering growth

The economic and population growth of the Upstate over the past 50 years wouldn’t have been possible without the reliable and abundant power generated by the Oconee nuclear project, according to John Lummus, president and CEO of the Upstate SC Alliance. The economic-development organization is tasked with attracting international businesses to the area and fostering global collaboration.

“The Oconee Station has been huge (in terms of economic impact), first and foremost to Oconee County but also to the region as a whole,” he said.

Beyond the direct financial impact of property taxes and the payroll of more than 800 employees that helps fuel the regional economy, Duke Energy’s stewardship of two of the most prized recreational destinations in the state has underpinned a thriving tourism economy in Pickens and Oconee counties.

Duke has been an active and willing partner in both promoting enjoyment of the lakes and preserving the lakes and their surroundings for future generations, according to Dale Wilde, president of Friends of Lake Keowee Society.

“It’s important to remember the lakes weren’t built for recreation but for energy,” she said. “We wouldn’t be here without the lake, without Duke.”

Being a good neighbor and community partner has been part of the Oconee station’s mandate from the beginning, according to Kreuzberger. It is one reason the World of Energy opened in 1969, a full four years before the first nuclear reactor became operational.

Beyond educational programs offered to schools and students across the region, maintaining connections with surrounding communities has been an ongoing priority for Duke and its employees, according to Trent Acker, who heads Duke’s government and community relations team based at the Oconee facility.

He said the plant’s hundreds of employees not only live, work and play in the communities they call home — they contribute financially to numerous organizations and volunteer thousands of hours to community causes.

Looking to the future

Strategic vision defined the Oconee station’s origins and has remained an important part of charting the facility’s future, according to Snider.

“We’re here for the long term,” he said.

The facility has been relicensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to remain operational beyond its initial permit term of 40 years and is set to expire in the early 2030s. The utility is working on a further renewal to keep the plant operational until the early 2050s. Snider said the crucial safety review for that process has been completed.

The preeminent consideration throughout the plant’s operation has been safety, he added.

In many ways this is aided by the fact that the world of nuclear power generation is actually quite small. It is a community of highly expert specialists who are in the habit of sharing information and lessons learned.

Whenever nuclear safety issues flare to life in the public’s awareness as the result of an incident somewhere in the world, precautions and safety measures are re-examined with added scrutiny to assess whether those precautions and measures need to be updated.

Beyond safety considerations, nuclear power forms a crucial component of Duke’s strategy of achieving a totally carbon free power generation portfolio in the coming decades.

While phasing out its remaining coal-fired plants in the coming years, Duke’s nuclear facilities such as Oconee are expected to continue to provide crucial electrical capacity for more people, more industry and, increasingly, the electric transportation network that grows with each passing year.

Nuclear power basics

The process of electrical power generation is generally straightforward and has remained largely unchanged for more than 100 years.

The heart of this time-proven technology is the electric motor. Mechanical energy, usually provided by some type of turbine, spins the motor and produces electrical current.

At the consumer end of the process, that electrical current generates mechanical energy to power vast industrial machines or the drivetrain on an electric car, for example.

In simple terms, nuclear power plants like Duke Energy’s Oconee station use a process called nuclear fission to generate heat, which generates steam used to power turbines that in turn drive the massive electric motors generating electricity.

U.S. nuclear by the numbers

54: Commercial nuclear power plants.

93: Total nuclear reactors in those 54 plants.

28: States with a nuclear power plant.

18.2: Percentage of power in the U.S. generated by nuclear plants.

July 31, 2023: Most recent reactor to come online, at a plant in Georgia south of Augusta near the South Carolina border.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, eia.gov.

Fun fact: Flooding on film

The flooding scenes in the iconic 1972 movie “ Deliverance” were shot at the Lake Jocassee work site and capture workers moving Mount Carmel Baptist Church and much of its adjacent cemetery.

Did you know?

Lake Jocassee is elevated above Lake Keowee and serves, in part, as a pumped storage facility. Its four hydroelectric units can generate 710 megawatts of electricity. Jocassee covers nearly 8,000 acres and encompasses about 92 miles of shoreline.

Did you know?

The Keowee-Toxaway complex is the centerpiece of about 167,000 acres of state parks, national forests and game lands that offer abundant recreational opportunities for residents and visitors.

Did you know?

In recent years, Lake Jocassee has become a haven for scuba diving. Submerged historical structures and the lake’s depth offer challenges for even the most skilled technical divers.