Draft environmental impact statement. Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2

Start-up and operation of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station Units 1 and 2, located on the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, 10 kilometers northeast of Berwick, Pennsylvania, is proposed. Each unit would employ a boiling water reactor to produce 3293 megawatts of thermal energy (MWt) to drive a steam turbine that would generate 1085 megawatts of electric power (MWe). The maximum heat produced by each unit could reach 3439 MWt with a corresponding maximum electrical output of 1135 MWe. Water, removed from and discharged into the Susquehanna River and cooled by natural-draft cooling towers, would be used to condense exhaust steam from the boilers. The station would transmit power to the area power grid through two 500-kilovolt (kV) lines. The first would extend 71 kilometers to the Sunbury-Susquehanna 230-kV corridor and then parallel the corridor to the Sunbury Substation. The second would extend 87 kilometers to the Siegfried Substation. The capital cost of construction and right-of-way acquisition for the station and transmission lines would be $1.64 million. The units would generate 11.0 to 12.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and contribute $5.5 million to state tax roles annually. The availability of an additional 2100 megawatts of power would increase system reliability, and the station would add 358 jobs to the area employment pool. Site preparation and transmission corridors would remove 435 hecacres and 1140 hecacres, respectively, from their current use. The plant and cooling towers would mar the landscape, and entrainment in the cooling system would kill fish and drifting organisms. Steam drift from the cooling towers would cause ice-loading on vegetation in the plant vicinity