Plant No Stranger to Accolades

Port Gibson, Miss. – Employees at Entergy’s Grand Gulf Nuclear Station recently exceeded three nuclear power milestones, thus adding to its reputation as one of the nation’s safest and most reliable nuclear plants.

On the afternoon of Dec. 26, 2009, the plant surpassed its previous online record of 421.694 days. The record was from Dec. 3, 1996 – Jan. 28, 1998.
GGNS has been online 445 days.

Grand Gulf is an industry leader in production. By performing well, Grand Gulf has contributed to Entergy Mississippi’s efforts to provide customers with the most reliable, affordable electricity possible,” said Randy Douet, site vice president.

Along with the record run came new highs in calendar year electrical generation. The generator produced 11,437,955 megawatt hours of electricity (gross) and 10,998,517 megawatt hours of electricity to the grid (net). Previous records were from 1997 for gross generation and from 2003 for net generation.
Generally, one megawatt-hour will power about 1000 homes for one hour.

On New Year’s Eve, GGNS set an all-time record for the lowest level of collective radiation exposure, 29.9 REM, accumulated by plant personnel in a given year. The previous record of CRE, 31.2 REM, was established in 2003. REM is a unit of measure for radiation exposure.

“Safety—from nuclear and industrial to radiological—is the primary focus of all that we do here at Grand Gulf. This includes the well-being of our employees, but also that of our contractors and our neighbors in the community,” said Douet.

Federal regulations allow for 5 REM per person; however, Entergy has established an even lower rate, 4.5 REM.

“By setting a lower dose rate than what is allowable by law, Entergy is demonstrating just how serious we are about protecting the health of our workforce,” added Douet.

The plant is also an Occupational Safety and Health Administration Star Site. This is OSHA’s official recognition of the outstanding efforts of employers and employees who have achieved exemplary occupational safety and health.

Although three plant records were set in 2009, GGNS is no stranger to accolades. In 2006, Platts named Grand Gulf as one of the top three of the country’s 103 nuclear power plants for total electricity output. In that same year, GG was ninth in generation among nuclear plants worldwide.

In 2012, GGNS will become the nation’s most powerful single-unit producer of electricity, when it undergoes an extended power uprate. Then, the plant will be capable of producing approximately 1,443 Megawatts.

Currently, Grand Gulf provides 22.3 percent of all electricity generated in Mississippi.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $13 billion and approximately 14,700 employees.

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