The Plant that Time Forgot
Nuclear Power is a hell of a way to boil water.
Often attributed to Albert Einstein, but actually Karl Grossman
When we first moved to the Olympia area, we did a lot of exploring, and one day we decided to go and check out the coast. We were driving along Washington State Route 8 about 30 miles west of Olympia, when these two distinctively shaped towers came into view. Simultaneously I said, “Huh” and Bob said, “Interesting.” We didn’t know we lived so near a nuclear power plant. We both agreed we’d have to look that up. It took several more times of driving past before we actually remembered to do that partly because most of the time we drive past it is pouring with rain and they are hidden in the clouds. Such is life in the Pacific Northwest.
When you look up nuclear power in Washington only one power plant shows up…and this isn’t it. The Satsop Nuclear Power Plant was actually two separate projects of the Washington Public Power Supply System or WPPSS - an unfortunate acronym which apparently led to them often being called Whoops! Oh, wait. Maybe they deserved it… They began constructing Washington Nuclear Project (WNP)-3 and WNP-5 in 1977 near Elma, Washington. By the early 1980s, WPPSS was running out of money due to cost overruns and a lack of public bond funding. Construction was halted on WNP-5 in January of 1982. It was 16% complete. They tried to keep going a bit longer on WNP-3 because it was 76% completed, but had to put it on a construction hiatus in June of 1983. They never managed to obtain enough funding to finish it and eventually gave up on WNP-3 completely in 1995.
The Big Repurpose
WPN-3 Cooling Tower (ISO 3200 (I had it accidentally set on 3200 for WAY too long before I figured it out. This camera did an amazing job compensating for me being an idiot), f/9, 1/4000s)
Ownership was transferred to the Port of Grays Harbor in 2013, and it has been converted into a somewhat unconventional community-owned business park. We recently went out to the coast again and on the way decided to take a side-trip and explore the business park. We drove around and found almost no traffic and hardly any cars parked there. The most hopping place was the Grays Harbor Superior Court. We did see other sightseers taking photos, though!
WNP-3 Cooling Tower and complex (ISO 100 (what it should be), 24mm, f/9, 1/320s)
Unfinished containment building. You can see all the way through it. (ISO 100, 24mm, f/9, 1/250s)
No idea what it is. Part of WNP-3 in between the cooling tower and the containment building. Housing for the turbine and generator maybe? (ISO 100, 24mm, f/9, 1/500s)
WNP-5 Cooling Tower
The non-captioned photo is the WNP-3 cooling tower with what looks like a giant tunnel borer (enlarged above). The backhoe next to it is fairly large. The borer was at least ten feet in diameter.
WNP-5 Cooling Tower (ISO 100, 24mm, f/16, 1/50s)