Friday, April 19, 2024
BRIDGE STREET HISTORY CENTER
Bill Walters is an RN BSN, currently working with a software company for the past 18 years. Born and raised in Hood County, he was in the class of 1973, graduating from the old high school on Bridge Street. He was also a founding member of the first ambulance service associated with the old Hood General Hospital located just off the square.
PART 1
On June 5, 1973, the application to build the Comanche Peak Steam Election Station (nuclear plant) was submitted. This involved three tons of paper representing all types of studies and information relating to the plant, development, safety, economic impact and other factors.
That same year in July, public hearings were held on the proposed $779 million plant located 14 miles southwest of Granbury.
The plant owned by Texas Power and Light Company was advertised to supply power to customers in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Garland, Irving, Plano, Richardson, Mesquite, Tyler, Waco, Wichita Falls, Odessa and Midland.
Several hundred construction workers were needed to build the plant and the adjoining 3,200-acre lake used as cooling water for the plant. It was formed by constructing a dam on Squaw Creek. During the seven-year period of construction, an average of 800 to 1,000 workers were employed, with a peak of about 1,400 to 1,500 during a 16- to 18-month period.
In October 1974, Brown and Root Construction Company began moving dirt at the site. In August 1975, the cost of the project was revised to $987 million due to design changes and inflation.
Construction crews worked two 10-hour shifts each day, six days a week. On May 14, 1975, workers reported finding dinosaur tracks in the Unit No. 1 reactor cavity, 80 feet below the surface. It was determined that the tracks were not unique and thus, construction could be continued. Texas Utilities used a rock saw to remove five of the more distinct tracks weighing up to 4.5 tons. The tracks were presented to the Somervell County Museum.
In January 1976, plant officials indicated the project was 12 percent complete, and in July 1976, Squaw Creek Reservoir was nearly complete. Its main function serves as cooling water for the nuclear plant. Lake Granbury played a major role in the development of the reservoir. A large portion of the water to fill the reservoir came from Lake Granbury. A pipeline almost nine football fields long connects Lake Granbury to Squaw Creek Reservoir.
The reservoir contains 151,000 acre-feet of water. In comparison, Lake Granbury has 155,000 acre-feet of water. One reason the reservoir is almost as large as Lake Granbury is because its average depth is more than Lake Granbury’s. At the Squaw Creek dam, the water’s depth is about 130 feet. Lake Granbury is only 73 feet deep at the dam.
In November 1976, Brown and Root, Inc. security personnel posted openings for guards and supervisors. Starting salary was $5.25 per hour.
In February 1976, workers completed the cement pour for the base of the containment building for the first unit at the plant. It contained over 6,600 cubic yards of cement and over 4 million pounds of steel reinforcement. All total, the first unit contains over 11,000 cubic yards of cement. All of the cement was mixed at the plant, and it took 16 trucks to complete the pour. The base is 12 feet thick, and the walls are 4.5 feet thick and 265 feet tall.
In June 1977, a 347-ton reactor arrived at the plant site. It took two years of construction and one month of travel to get to the site by barge from Chattanooga to Houston, and by special rail car from Houston to Midlothian.
Around June 1977, a revised construction cost came out showing an estimated increased cost of $1.7 billion. And in February, pumps began filling Squaw Creek Reservoir.
Bomb threat charges were filed in 1978 against a former employee of Brown and Root. Later that year, project management indicated that construction was on schedule and some 4,000 employees were averaging 50-hour weeks and 20,000 man hours per week.
Not everyone was in favor of the nuclear plant. On June 14, 1979, about 100 demonstrators occupied the plant. The demonstration ended with law officers hauling off the protesters in buses. Trespass charges were filed on each demonstrator. There was much discussion in the public about the safety of the plant.
To be continued.
