Listen Here
By Monica Crawford
crawfordm3@findlay.edu
On April 14, University of Findlay environmental health, safety, and sustainability students visited the Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station, a 954-acre nuclear power plant site located in Oak Harbor, Ohio, just east of Toledo. The students witnessed firsthand the generation and management of nuclear energy and its real-world impact on the environment.
Students from ESOH 240, Energy for a Sustainable Future, had been learning the theory of nuclear power and toured the site.
“Our ESOH 240 Sustainable Energy class focuses on all aspects of energy production and use. During the course, we discuss the evolution of nuclear power and then nuclear energy—from the Manhattan Project to the possibility of small modular reactors powering data centers in the future,” said Justin Richardson, instructor of teaching in environmental, safety, and occupational health management. “We were fortunate enough to be asked to come tour the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power plant, talk with their engineers and environmental workers, and experience the process we had learned about in class.”
The students explained that the site utilized many surprising operational mechanisms, each with its own dedicated purpose.
“The most surprising thing I learned during the tour was how much water is used within the facility in order to keep the reactor cooled and stable,” said Justin Mulholland, environmental health, safety, and sustainability senior. “They told us that they had four main pumps that each output roughly 120,000-140,000 gallons of water per minute, so all together that’s north of 500,000 gallons of water per minute that is circulated through the reactor, which is then turned into steam, and then this steam is sent through condensers at the cooling tower where it becomes water again and falls to the bottom of the tower to then flow back into the process and be reused.”
“The most surprising thing I learned was how extensive the security and safety equipment is,” said Carson Kuhlman, environmental health, safety, and sustainability junior. “I did not realize how strict their protocols were. It showed me the strong emphasis they place on protecting not only their workers but also the surrounding community and wildlife.”
S“I was surprised at how much work it goes into actually creating energy,” said Allyson Patterson, environmental health, safety, and sustainability senior. “It goes from dropping these big rods into water that then creates steam that then spins a turbine, and then the turbine creates energy generation, all within a primary area, a secondary area, and then the tertiary one that actually creates the power.”
The visit to the site influenced students’ beliefs on how nuclear power should play a larger role in the future of sustainable energy.
“I absolutely feel that nuclear power should play a major role in the future of sustainable energy,” said Mulholland. “I think that nuclear energy is the cleanest, most sustainable, and safest form of sustainable energy generation.”
“I believe nuclear energy will play a major role in providing reliable, clean energy with low carbon emissions, alongside solar and wind power,” said Kuhlman. “It can serve as a dependable option when renewable sources are not producing enough energy.”
“I think that nuclear power can sometimes get a really bad rap, because when it goes bad, it can go really bad, but it’s also a very clean energy, makes a lot of power, and has many safety measures,” said Patterson. “So, I find that in society today, it could be very useful to have, because it can create those really large power generators; it can basically generate power for the entirety of the Toledo area while also not creating a whole bunch of CO₂ emissions or taking up a whole lot of space, because it can be relatively small or use a lot of water that gets wasted.”
Not only did the trip reinforce and change beliefs, but it also altered career and academic goals.
“This experience influenced my career interests a little bit,” said Mulholland. “I had wanted to intern at Davis Bessie since I was a freshman, but they never really had any open spots for safety, so for a while, I kind of lost interest in working at a nuclear power plant. However, this trip re-ignited my desire to work at a nuclear power plant at some point in my career.”
“This experience reinforced my interest in environmental health, safety, and sustainability, particularly within the energy sector,” said Kulhlman. “It also increased my interest in working in industries that focus on sustainable and safe energy solutions.”
“Last summer, I interned at Marathon Petroleum, so I did oil, which is not sustainable energy, but it is still power generation, and power generation is just a really big interest of mine,” said Patterson. “I like hydropower the most, but nuclear power is definitely super interesting because of the amount of effort that it takes to put into it. So it kind of influences me in the way that I continue to find it interesting and want to learn more.”
