The Limerick Generating Station in Pennsylvania is located next to the Schuylkill River in Limerick Township, Montgomery County, northwest of Philadelphia. The facility has two General Electric boiling water reactor (BWR) units, cooled by natural draft cooling towers. The two units are capable of producing over 1,200 megawatts of power each, which combined would provide electricity to over 2 million households. Exelon Corporation owns and operates this facility. With the exception of refueling outages, Limerick Generating Station always operates at 100% power. The plant is connected to the grid by several 500kv transmission lines.For critical standby power, Exelon depends on eight Fairbanks Morse Opposed Piston 38D 8 1/8 Emergency Diesel Generator sets that each deliver 3000 kilowatts of power and are capable of achieving rated speed within ten seconds of start.On clear days the cooling towers for the Limerick Generating Station can be seen from the One Liberty Observation Deck in Philadelphia.Surrounding populationThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of, concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about, concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.
