goingcritical:santa-maria-de-garonaSpain · Power reactor
Santa María de Garoña
Status: Shut down reached first criticality November 5, 1970 Reactor status full glossary → Announced Publicly announced — a site and design are proposed, but construction has not begun. Site preparation Early site and civil works are under way; the first safety-related ("nuclear") concrete has not yet been poured. Under construction Formal construction has begun, marked by the first nuclear concrete. Fuel loaded Nuclear fuel has been loaded into the core. The reactor is fuelled but has not yet gone critical. Critical Has reached first criticality — a self-sustaining chain reaction, usually at low power — but is not yet connected to the grid. Grid connected Synchronised to the electrical grid and exporting power for the first time, but still in commissioning and power-ascension testing — not yet in commercial service. In commercial operation — the operator has formally declared the unit in regular commercial service. Shut down Permanently shut down and no longer generating; may be defuelled, undergoing decommissioning, or preserved in place. Canceled Abandoned before completion.
Site: Garoña, Burgos
An early General Electric BWR-3 with Mark I containment on the Ebro river in Burgos, a sister design to Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1. It went critical in November 1970. The operator halted the reactor on 6 July 2013 amid a tax and licensing dispute, and although a restart was debated for years, the government declined to renew its license, making the shutdown permanent on 2 August 2017.
Details
| Design | General Electric BWR-3 (Mark I containment) |
| Electrical output | 446 MWe |
Milestone history
- Announced —
- Construction start September 1, 1966
- Fuel load —
- First criticality November 5, 1970
- Grid connection March 2, 1971
- Commercial operation May 11, 1971