page_title: Trojan Nuclear Power Plant
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Trojan Nuclear Power Plant / History
caption_attribution_description: English: uploaded by photographer. username: erikpatt
context_page_description: Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was a pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant in the northwest United States, located southeast of Rainier, Oregon, and the only commercial nuclear power plant to be built in Oregon. There was public opposition to the plant from the design stage. The three main opposition groups were the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance, Forelaws on the Board, and Mothers for Peace. There were largely non-violent protests from 1977, and subsequent arrests of participants.
  The plant was connected to the grid in December 1975.
  After only 16 years of service, the plant was closed in 1992 by its operator, Portland General Electric, after cracks were discovered in the steam-generator tubing. Decommissioning and demolition of the plant began the following year and was completed in 2006.
  While operating, Trojan represented more than 12% of the electrical generation capacity of Oregon. The site lies about twelve miles north of St. Helens, on the west bank of the Columbia River.
context_section_description: The Trojan Powder Company had formerly manufactured gunpowder and dynamite on a 634 acres (257 ha) site on the banks of the Columbia River, 4 miles (6.4 km) from the town of Rainier, Oregon.
  In 1967 Portland General Electric chose the site for a new nuclear power plant.
  Construction began on February 1, 1970; first criticality was achieved on December 15, 1975, and grid connection eight days later on December 23. Commercial operation began on May 20, 1976, under a 35-year license to expire in 2011. At the time, the single 1130 megawatt unit at Trojan was the world's largest pressurized water reactor; it cost $460 million to build the plant.
  Environmental opposition dogged Trojan from its inception, and the opposition included non-violent protests organized by the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance. Direct action protests were held at the plant in 1977 and 1978, resulting in hundreds of arrests.
  In 1978, the plant went offline on March 17 for routine refueling and was idle for nine months while modifications were made to improve its resistance to earthquakes. This followed the discovery of both major building construction errors and the close proximity of a previously unknown fault. The operators sued the builders, and an undisclosed out-of-court settlement was eventually reached.
  The Trojan steam generators were designed to last the life of the plant, but it was only four years before premature cracking of the steam tubes was observed. In October 1979, the plant was shut down through the end of the year for repairs.
  In the 1980 election, a ballot measure to ban construction of further nuclear power plants in the state without federally approved waste facilities was approved by the voters 608,412 (53.2%) to 535,049 (46.8%). In 1986, a ballot measure initiated by Lloyd Marbet for immediate closure of the Trojan plant failed 35.7% yes to 64.3% no. This proposal was resubmitted in 1990, and again in 1992 when a similar proposal (by Jerry and Marilyn Wilson) to close the plant was also included. Each measure was soundly defeated by vote margins over 210,000 votes.  Although all closure proposals were defeated, the plant operators committed to successively earlier closure dates for the plant.
  In 1992, PGE spent $4.5 million to successfully defeat ballot measures seeking to close Trojan immediately, rather than within four years, as PGE had planned. At the time, it was the most expensive ballot measure campaign in Oregon history.  A week after the election, the Trojan plant suffered another steam generator tube leak of radioactive water, and was shut down. It was announced that replacement of the steam generators would be necessary. In December 1992, documents were leaked from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission showing that staff scientists believed that Trojan might be unsafe to operate. In early January 1993, PGE chief executive Ken Harrison announced the company would not try to restart Trojan.
caption: Two people fishing near the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor dome is visible on the left, and the massive cooling tower on the right.
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