Ōruawai Power Station

Ōruawai Power Station
Ōruawai Power Station, January 2009
Location	Castlevennon, DEVX
Status	Operational
Construction began	13 November 1973
Commission date	7 May 1982 (1982-05-07)
Operator(s)	Australis Electricity
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Cogeneration?	No
Cooling source	Castlevennon Harbour
Cooling towers	2
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 3,260 MW steam turbine
Units decommissioned	1 × 820 MW steam turbine
Capacity factor	85.05
Annual generation	12,666 GW·h
Location map
List of power stations in New Ingrea Electricity sector of New Ingrea Energy in New Ingrea

The Ōruawai Power Station is a nuclear powered electricity generating station located at Castlevennon in Deverauxshire. With a generation capacity of 4,080 MW, Ōruawai is the largest power station in New Ingrea.

History

Background

In March 1969, geologists discovered a rich deposit of Uraninite in the Drummond Hills, some 15 miles (24 kilometres) north-east of Beaconsfield. Investigations of the site soon revealed that the deposit was large enough for commercial extraction and refinement into nuclear fuel. In November 1970, the government announced that it licence the extraction and refinement of the deposits into a fuel for export, and that a small portion of the Uranium extracted from the process would be used for the domestic market for medicine. However within a week, the government announced that it would also commence investigations into the construction of a nuclear power station near the deposits in an effort to develop a domestic nuclear power industry to remove New Ingrea's reliance on the ever diminishing supply of coal and natural gas.

The decision to develop nuclear power in this country caused an uproar amongst left-leaning political groups across New Ingrea. The Labour Party called the plan "irrational", whilst the trade union movement called the embracing if nuclear energy "an invitation to holocaust". However, the plan enjoyed widespread public support, with 65% of the population polled as supporting the development of nuclear energy. The project also had the support of the main opposition National Party, who praised the plan as a "bold and daring exercise in nation-building". Given the incidence of major nuclear accidents was still in the future, this support can be readily understood. Later generations of New Ingreans have been sceptical of nuclear power, with outright support falling below 50% since the early 1980s. However in the most recent poll taken in 2014, only 30% of polled respondents actively opposed the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation, with the rest supporting or being ambivalent to it's continued use.

After a rigorous investigation of possible locations by the central government, the only viable site in which the station would be located was on the shores of the Veness River in Deverauxshire. It was also decided that the reactor should be of the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) type, with a Ingerish firm awarded the contract to build the reactor in May 1972.

In the wake of the announcement, court cases were launched by nascent radical environmental movement in an attempt to derail the planning process, which the government had launched at once in a fast-tracked form in order to get construction under way within two years. Despite numerous attempts to obstruct the planners, a process which saw environmental groups appeal the planning decision and the process in which it had been undertaken all the way to the Court of Appeal (Collins v Minister of State for Infrastructure), the judicial system found no fault with the process, and construction of the power station was able to get under way on time in late 1973.

Construction

Construction of the Ōruawai power station commenced on 13 November 1973 with a ceremonial turning of the first sod by Jonathan Braddock, the Prime Minister of New Ingrea. Much of the project was constructed with local labour, overseen by Ingerish and Japanese experts, whose governments had agreed to assist New Ingrea develop a nuclear energy sector. In order to take advantage of the technology, facilities for dealing with the entire nuclear fuel cycle had to be constructed near the power station. Between 1972 and 1982 these facilities were built at several locations across southern Deverauxshire. The two most important of these is the Nuclear Research Laboratory, which includes independent facilities for uranium enrichment, fuel production, fuel reprocessing, and has a research reactor for the various projects of the Bureau of Nuclear Science and Research.

Design and specification

Ōruawai A

The first Ōruawai reactor (known generally as Ōruawai 'A') is an Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) type reactor. The reactor opened in 1982, and will continue to run until December 2020, when the decommissioning process will commence.

Ōruawai B

In 2008, it was proposed that a second reactor (Ōruawai 'B') will be developed at Ōruawai, and construction commenced in July 2012. The reactor was completed and brought in to commission by March 2020. The second reactor was also a Pressurised Water Reactor.