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The William H. Zimmer Power Station, located near Moscow, Ohio, is a coal-fired power plant owned by Dynegy, Inc. It was originally intended to be a boiling water reactor type of nuclear power plant. Although once estimated to be 97% complete, poor construction and quality assurance (QA) led to the plant being converted to coal-fired generation. As of 2012, the plant generates 1460 gross MWe and 1300 net MWe. Zimmer Power Station is the largest single-unit power facility in the United States. During the construction of the plant, the Little Indian Creek was routed through the plant to protect fish populations. The plant now has several unique environmental protection features to keep the creek at its natural state. == History == As a result of two separate probes into defective pipe welds, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fined Cincinnati Gas and Electric $200,000 for a faulty quality assurance program. The NRC, under pressure, eventually ordered work on the nuclear reactor to halt in 1982.〔Stephanie Cooke (2009). ''In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age'', Black Inc., pp. 279-281.〕 Cincinnati Gas and Electric, with two other electric utilities (American Electric Power and Dayton Power and Light), announced the cancellation of the Zimmer nuclear power plant in October 1983. Zimmer's total sunk costs equaled some $1.8 billion; Cincinnati's share amounted to $716 million, which was almost 90 percent of the utility's 1982 net worth.〔(Nuclear power plant cancellations: sunk costs and utility stock returns )〕 Originally expected to cost $230 million, when the cost estimate soared to at least $3.4 billion the decision was made in 1984 to convert the plant. (Regulatory delays and high interest rates also contributed to the cost increase.) The constructor, the Henry J. Kaiser Company, had never built a nuclear power plant before (or since). The primary owner, Cincinnati Gas and Electric, did its own procurement, awarding contracts for equipment, e.g., for hundreds of valves, with inadequate specifications or QA requirements. Piping welds were not adequately radiographed. Sargent & Lundy was the Architect/Engineering firm. An ex-Navy admiral was hired to bring the plant on-line, and Bechtel was retained to nuclear-qualify the plant. Bechtel came in with an estimate of more than $1.5 billion—beyond the $1.7 billion already spent—to adequately complete the plant. Converting the mothballed plant to coal-fired generation started in 1987. After $1 billion in expenditures, the world's first nuclear-to-coal power plant was completed in 1991. The plant was named for William H. Zimmer, who was chairman and president of Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. from 1962 to 1975.〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William H. Zimmer Power Station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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