Columbia Generating Station
The region's only nuclear power plant
Columbia Generating Station Fact Sheet
Columbia Generating Station Video Tour - 42MB MPEG
A good way to learn about nuclear energy is to tour an operating power plant. Tours are available to special groups that meet predetermined business criteria. Tour requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Tours are restricted to Homeland Security Alert Levels Yellow and below. Should an Orange Alert be declared, an approved tour would need to be rescheduled at a mutually agreeable time.
The Columbia Generating Station power plant tour lasts between two and three hours. It begins with a brief orientation, followed by a tour of various areas of the plant.
Tours are free and available Monday through Thursday. (Special arrangements are required for Friday/Saturday tours.) Reservations are required at least two weeks in advance and can be made up to six months in advance. Scheduling depends on staff availability and national security alert level.
(Tour availability subject to Homeland Security alert levels Yellow and Green)
Tour Guidelines
As a commercial nuclear generation facility, Columbia Generating Station is subject to strict guidelines regarding visitors. For safety reasons, tours of Columbia Generating Station are restricted to adults, ages 18 and older.
Access: Each person MUST have some form of PHOTO IDENTIFICATION with him or her. For US citizens, a valid driver’s license, student ID card, and passport are all acceptable forms of ID. All foreign nationals must have a valid passport with them. All visitor vehicles will be searched.
Clothing: It is important that you wear NATURAL fiber clothing rather than polyester or acrylic for your shirts, blouses, slacks and skirts. Shirts made of 100% cotton, and slacks made of 100% cotton (such as Dockers or Levi’s), 100% wool, or blue jeans work fine. Shorts are not allowed. Examples of polyesters/acrylics typically found in wardrobes include nylon in slips or windbreakers; acetates in coat linings; polyester or cotton/poly blends in slacks and shirts; women’s pantyhose; and wool/polyester blends in slacks and suits. Corduroy is also problematic. This provision about “Natural Only/No Polyesters” does not apply to undergarments.
The clothing you wear is important to help minimize the creation of static electricity. Static electricity in synthetics attracts radon, a naturally occurring isotope that’s present all around us. This attraction occurs all the time, wherever you may be – however, the radiation monitors at Columbia Generating Station are so sensitive they can detect this radon, and it may delay your exit from the plant. This delay can take between 15 minutes and an hour while the radon either dissipates naturally or is cleaned off by a Health Physics technician.
To minimize the potential for delays or inconvenience in exiting the plant, please wear natural fiber or cotton.
Shoes: Please wear comfortable walking shoes. We will typically spend 1 – 2 hours inside the plant, almost all of which is walking or standing on concrete and other hard surfaces. Leather uppers are preferred for safety reasons. High heels, sandals, and shoes with open toes are not allowed.
Cameras: Due to heightened security at Columbia Generating Station, cameras are no longer allowed.
Restricted items: Certain items are prohibited inside a 1.2 mile radius of the plant, which includes all parking lots and vehicles in those lots. Prohibited items include firearms, ammunition, explosive devices, incendiary devices, self-defense sprays (such as Mace), alcoholic beverages, and street drugs and non-prescription controlled drugs. Prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications are okay. Use of tobacco products is not allowed on Energy Northwest property. Pets, with the exception of service dogs, are also not allowed.
Map
to Columbia Generating Station
