Scouting Long Island’s Decommissioned Nuclear Power Plant
Driving on Route-25a through East Shoreham, you’d never guess there was anything unusual about the gated road heading off toward the coast.
But go down a ways…
…and suddenly, it’ll appear through the trees…
Long Island’s only nuclear power plant, closed and shuttered since it was decommissioned in 1994.
Today, it sits completely empty, a relic of 1970s design permanently frozen in time.
A month ago, I heard that the now vacant Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was available as a filming location, and I immediately set up a tour. It’d certainly be the first nuclear power plant to have in my files, and I was absolutely fascinated to see what still remained inside.
Construction began on Shoreham’s GE Mark II Boiling Water Reactor in 1973 and finished 12 years later in 1985, when it received its testing license and began operating at 5% capacity. That’s as far as the plant ever got.
Public opposition had been growing steadily during this period, in large part due to Three Mile Island’s partial meltdown in 1979 and the Chernobyl tragedy in 1986. The state and county eventually sided with the opposition and refused to approve the plant’s emergency escape route plan, which prevented it from obtaining an operating license.
In 1992, the $6 Billion facility was sold to the state for $1 (the cost was passed onto LI tax payers as a 3% surcharge on electric bills). The two-year decommissioning process commenced, the first time in US history that a licensed commercial nuclear reactor would be dismantled.
The process was completed in 1994 following the removal of 5 million pounds of radioactive waste and 560 irradiated fuel rod assemblies. The plant has been vacant and dormant ever since.
As we arrived at the doors to the facility, I noticed the first of what would turn out to be hundreds of warning signs still posted throughout.
We headed in.
As walked through the first few industrial rooms and corridors, my initial thought was that the plant seemed massive once you were inside.
It only took about four or five turns before I was completely lost.
Every once in a while, we’d come to a large open shaft going up to the roof, giving a sense of the height.
Despite being decommissioned, equipment is everywhere, some of it still in use.
I will admit, it takes a lot of self-control not to reach out and touch the thousands of buttons and levers you pass at every turn.
Also, there are pipes everywhere. I feel like I saw every possible variation of pipe and duct during my tour.
Finally, there are a lot of safety stations still in place, like this area radiation monitor.
Ditto the chemical burn first aid stations…
…and these cabinets containing emergency breathing apparatus:
After heading deeper into the plant, we came to a pair of double doors. We stepped through…
…and traveled back in time to when modern computers did not exist.
This is the reactor control room, an absolutely mind-boggling assortment of buttons, knobs, switches, lights, levers and cranks.
The equipment spans three entire walls…
…along with several work stations in the middle of the room. Look at that computer!
The desk calendar was last changed on November 8, 1994:
One of my favorite control arrays was this desk…
…which features a colorfully eye-pleasing – and easy to read! – set of lines connecting various systems with their indicator lights:
More switches…
…gauges…
…monitors…
…and more switches:
I was also intrigued by this grid of buttons, which depicts the status of the fuel rod assembly. You’ll note the word SCRAM on many of them, industry-speak for an emergency shutdown of a reactor.
Nearby, this diagram appears to monitor the overall reactor status, with more indicator lights and colorful connector lines:
Lining the top of the equipment stations were several tables of error messages, which I imagine you prayed would never light up:
The operator at this station was lucky to get a big-screen monitor:
Make your System Op quick calls here:
If you look at the rug, you’ll see a darker stripe running along the perimeter of the room. I was told that this was referred to as the “velvet rope,” and NO ONE was allowed to set foot into it without authorization from the office overlooking the control room.
This is that office:
From the control room, we headed down several more tunnels toward the reactor…
…passing more warning signs.
The Shoreham reactor was encased in two layers of containment. The outer layer, or secondary containment, is a 7-foot thick wall of reinforced concrete, traversed via this passage:
To enter the primary containment area, one would have to climb into this claustrophobic tube and securely close the enormous steel door…
…then wait on that bench for the door at the other end to open:
A phone for communicating with the outside world while sealed inside:
We stepped through the inner door…
The tour continues – Click here to go to the next page!
Great write-up. Hope to see it in a movie some time!
Live-action Simpsons movie?
Was thinking that too, kept see Homer in opening of the simpsons and the green radioactive rod
MomVee, I was thinking that too! I mentally inserted Homer Simpson into a lot of these pictures.
SO SO FASCINATING!!!!! Thank you for sharing this!
Let’s reunite Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas for “The China Syndrome 2: Revenge of the Isotopes.”
I can’t stop thinking about Homer Simpson meanwhile I read your great post. Thanks for sharing!
This is so friggin’ awesome! Another one that is a classic!
Great tour, looks a LOT like where I work 😉
>Every once in a while, we’d come to a large open shaft going up to the roof, giving a sense of the height.
These are the hoistways used for lowering equipment and materials to the various elevations of the building. There would have been an overhead bridge crane at one time for servicing this hoistway.
>Despite being decommissioned, equipment is everywhere, some of it still in use.
These load centers presumably still power the lighting and environmental equipment OR service the natural gas powered combustion turbine plant on the site using the existing transmission infrastructure.
>I was also intrigued by this grid of buttons, which depicts the status of the fuel rod assembly.
This is actually a display of the position of the *control rods*, not the fuel assemblies; you’ll find both in the reactor pressure vessel of course. Control rods would be raised into the core from below the reactor vessel to change the power level or immediately shut down the reactor.
>the word SCRAM
The industry urban legend (no idea whether it is true of course) goes back to the earliest research reactors where the control rods would be held up by a rope and pulley and if anything started to perform unexpectedly, the “axe man” (literally a man with an axe next to the rope) would be told to cut the rope – i.e. Start Cutting Rope Axe Man!
>Lining the top of the equipment stations were several tables of error messages, which I imagine you prayed would never light up:
A lot of these were pretty routine, a simple as it was getting close to time to change an air or water filter as the differential pressure across it started increasing. Some you very much did NOT want to illuminate!
>To enter the primary containment area, one would have to climb into this claustrophobic tube and securely close the enormous steel door…
This is called the personnel air lock. It would take a minute or so to close the outer door and open the inner door. There is usually a phone and intercom inside the air lock. Under a panel in the floor is a tool kit to allow you to remove the bolted on blind flange of an emergency air port to let in breathing air in case you got stuck.
>A phone for communicating with the outside world while sealed inside:
This is actually a GAI-tronics system handset. It lets you make a page announcement to the entire plant or communicate with another party on a specific line selected by rotating the knob below the red and white strip of tape. You can’t dial a phone number from it. The panel to the left controls the opening and closing of the doors and valves in the air lock.
> Every once in a while, you’d pass by a “Hear-Here” booth, which I imagine offered some quiet when talking on the phone in a noisy environment:
Meh, they’re not really that helpful other than identifying where a phone or GAI-tronics handset is located!
> And finally, one more control room, this one dedicated to the operation of the containment building:
> I gravitate toward the more colorful panels:
I think this control room was likely for radwaste processing or plant water chemistry. The panels discuss various waste tanks, deionizers, and acid / caustic supplies (used for bringing water to a neutral pH for further processing, use in the plant, or discharge).
Keep up the great work!
No natural gas fired plants in that area at all. In fact, No natural gas within almost a mile of that place. Those electric “peaking” plants are diesel fired units.
Indeed: http://www.jpowerusa.com/projectsShoreham.html
Most folks east of the plant were firmly against its opening, since we were essentially written off in an evacuation plan. Unless you had a boat with which to go a direction other than west, you would have been screwed.
Every horror and sci-fi movie made in the next 25 years will use this location. Wow.
P.S. Very cool comment from Jason too.
I would want to press every single one of those buttons… and flip every switch. I’m normally not OCD, but when I see buttons and switches… I go nuts. If I’m walking past a fire alarm, I literally have to walk along the opposite wall because I think I’m going to one day reach out and pull that alarm.
I have issues… 🙂
Another great tour. This building would be the perfect location for a movie or crime scene tv show.
If you take the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson ferry this plant is of only four structures on Long Island visible from the Connecticut side. The others are the smokestacks of the (conventional) power plants in Port Jefferson and Northport, and Stony Brook hospital.
Would be a good The Following episode
my husband and i loved your photos of the Shoreham Nuclear power plant.
he worked on site in nuclear engineering for many years, up until it closed.
I heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was filming a movie there a few years back.
Gotta ask, since you had to drive past it on 25A to get to the power plant, is Tesla’s old buiding still there?
Some of the building are still there, but in rough shape. An nonprofit just raised a bunch of money and bought the property to turn it into a Tesla museum. They’re over at http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/ if you’re interested, they’re usually looking for volunteers to help clean up the grounds on weekends when it’s nice too.
I worked at the Shoreham Nuclear Plant for two years. I still remember the day coming up the drive and the stacks coming into view…it was like I was coming upon a movie set. Met wonderful people, some of which I still keep in touch with today…and all with a common goal to get this plant online. I worked on many of the “drills” and you would absolutely swear the melt down, or whatever other scenario they came up with, was actually happening. There was deadpan seriousness in that room and everyone had a job to do and took it VERY seriously. It always impressed me to see the dedication of those people who worked on that plant and worked so tirelessly to get it ready to open. Probably the most safest nuclear plant ever built…such a shame it never came on line. We could use that power today!!!
I agree such a shame it never opened. My dad worked there several years and very proud of it.
Yes, it is a shame it never came to be. People are still paying for it and they got what they wanted. Trouble is that most people want this and that, as long as it is not in there back yard. If all you can do is complain about this and that, then you to are part of the problem. “Put it in someone else’s back yard, not mine”
All the flickr links go to a page that says “Oops! You don’t have permission to view this photo”.
Great photos! (but would love to see bigger versions)
Best place I’ve ever worked at Miss SNPS…..!
I worked at SNPS for over a dozen years as a security supervisor. These pictures sure brought back a lot of lost memories. The best job I ever had in my over 50 year working career. What a waste of time and money decommissioning this plant. This plant was ready to go, as were all of us dedicated employees. SNPS …gone but never forgotten.
Hi Skip !
I stumbled across this archive of photos today and was taken way back in time!
I remember you in the Security Dept., before it was YOH Security even. I was in Operations
Dept from 84 to 94. I was friends of Jim and Steve Diagostino from your Security team.
Anyway, it is sad to think of what a monumental waste it was to throw that plant away.
The photos of what’s left deteriorating is quite amazing. Never thought that the day would
actually arrive that they would throw it all away when I first got there. Good memories working
there.
Wendle L., SNPS badge no. 849
Wendle, What shift were you on in Ops?. I worked there from 80 to 89 and was a SRO Shift Supv working with Bill Nazzaro and later Tony Matasich (not sure of the spelling.
Joe Guttieri
Hello Joe !
Thanks for coming to take a look at what’s left of the most incredible nuclear financial disaster in history! Simply amazing what they did to the place I thought we’d all retire from.
As for my shift, I was on C crew, as I remember calling it. Came in November 84 as EO. Bill Nazarro and Warren Uhl’s crew; and Dean Rhinehardt as NSO. We had Marty O’Brien out in Rad Waste Control and a thin guy, with the shakes, named Jim who smoked constantly, as the veteran EO. We had Kevin Dingle, as the 3rd EO.
After the 84-86 Hot License class finished John Santiago and Phil Plunkett came on C crew as NASO’s in the Control Rm and Wayne Loris as NSO. Dean got his SRO and was promoted to Watch Sup. I went to RO Cert in Hauppauge from 86-88. Got license and came back to C crew under Peter R. Miller, WE and Rick Reeves, WS. John S. got promoted to NSO on another crew. I stayed for most of the decon and fuel shipping till April 94 and was allowed to post for Gas Customer Service job out of Queens/Nassau. Ended up driving to Rockaway Park, 108th Street my first year from Shirley! (63 miles).
Anyway, I remember you well, Joe. You were in the operator group with Mike Gardner, Mike Dugan, Rick Andersen, etc. When I got to Shoreham, I thought you were on Willie Charvat or Pop Holly’s crew? ; not sure. Little sketchy there. But, anyway, memories of SNPS do not go completely away, they just fade with some sort of half life! How bout this—
You always impressed me as a sharp dresser in the control room, so I learned how to do the Guttieri “shirt tuck” way back then. You didn’t know I copied that from you. That is the absolutely only “tuck” for every button down shirt, to this day! Never leave home without it.
Take care. Good to see your post. I’m in Solar Power Operations now, just recently after years in Combined Cycle generation. Never went back to nuclear after I saw them bores holes in the Shoreham pressure vessel. That paradigm was destroyed for me, but life went on. Have a great day!
Wendle Lehnerd
bwinc8@gmail.com
I worked at SNPS from 82-94. The real irony is that the much revered BNL was the true nuclear nightmare. The stuff that was going on over there would have been great news fodder for Newsday but for some reason they received the “golden child” status. I worked there from 94-2000 after I got excessed from Radiochemistry. A truly fascinating place, but safety and environmental regulations did not receive exactly …what we from SNPS would call…verbatim compliance. The place was a radiological/hazardouos waste disaster area. Left BNL in 2000 and ended up in Maine’s Radiation Control Program. Nice landing spot, but I still haven’t made my 1994 SNPS salary. Control Room line 1, Control Room line 1….
Yet another detailed and well-thought out post! thank you
I find it tragic that the people of Long Island has to eat that extra 3% over the sale of the property. $1?!? What an outrage.
Real dinosaurs died and decomposed millions of years ago. This modern dinosaur will be an eyesore forever. And just think of the cost just involved in decommissioning this plant to this sorry state. Just say no to nuclear!
“Fuel rods would have been loaded into the reactor via these tracks, first passing through the seven-foot thick outer shield…” is not quite correct. That access is for removing and replacing the control rods, which on a BWR enter from the bottom. The fuel was loaded from the top when the reactor vessel head was removed during outages.
Other wise, this is a great set of pics!
Thank you Jason for explaining the to the people especially the narrator about what they really were looking at. You were spot on, since I was there as an operator for many years. Crew “C” to be exact. The pictures do bring back many memories. For that I thank the scout for braving the elements 🙂 .
Nick,
I worked on that Decommissioning from early 1992 to July 1994, on the Termination Survey (the final radiological cleanliness survey). Thanks for the trip down memory lane….even got to see my old office window from the outside.
Couple of corrections I could offer: the plant actually was granted a full power operating license by the NRC…on a Friday; the following Monday, the utility (LILCO then, LIPA now) and the State of NY announced the decision to abandon the plant…talk about a blow to the solar plexus of everyone who had sacrificed family time to meet all those milestones! Unfathomable.
The second photo of additional “shielding walls” actually shows walls that were once intact but contaminated at a low level. The walls were cut apart and left standing at these spatial intervals to fall below the allowable radiation levels set by the NRC at the time (“dilution is the solution”). In fact, I wrote the work instruction for applying those grid marks that you see on the structures, defining one square meter.
Not every grid was surveyed….the draft NUREG at the time allowed for random or systematic surveying of some areas, depending on the degree to which the area was affected by reactor operation. Certainly, in the containment, every floor grid received a measurement.
You do refer to the “reactor” in your photo captions….actually, the reactor vessel was cut up and removed in rings by a radial cutting arm….kind of like cutting a tin can into rings, working from the inside. The metal was sold to the US Govt to serve as shielding material in areas of their facilities with even higher levels of radiation.
The fuel itself was shipped by barge to the Limerick power plant in Pennsylvania, which could use it in its reactor…in fact, Limerick was paid to receive the fuel. (“May I gas up your car? In fact, let me pay you to receive the gas, and I’ll even deliver it to you”…what a deal!)
Please feel free to consult me for any other “behind the scenes” stories you might be interested in….there’s a great film waiting to be made about that Shoreham project itself.
Fabulous post! Long Island holds plenty of surprises. Back in the late 70s, we considered building a custom home near Huntington. The real estate agent showed us several properties, one of which had a decommissioned, empty missile silo.
That Control Room! What a fantastic tour, Nick! Seriously appreciate you sharing this with us!
I worked for Stone &Webster Engineering. I was the youngest Administrative Asst. At age 20. I met my husband there, who recently passed but would h ave enjoyed all of these photos. My father worked there as well, a union Sheet Metal foreman. Thank you
My good friend, Nora Bredes, was the most instrumental person in stopping this plant. She later went on to become a Suffolk County legislator and was just an all around amazing woman, friend, and mother. She passed away a few years ago from breast cancer but I know stopping Shoreham was one of her proudest achievements.
The irony…She dies of Breast Cancer ( was that Shoreham’s Fault?) I wouldn’t consider such a tremendous waste of resources and potential an achievement by any stretch .
paying a 3 percent surcharge on electric Bills for 30 years to fund something that was never realized . How is that an achievement to anyone ? Paying another utility to take fuel rods?? Oh yeah! Long Islanders made out on that deal …
LONG LIVE Nuclear Power !
Thank you for the photos
+919649673702 call me
What a waist, all of the money spent to plan and build and then to sell to the state for a dollar just to spend more of our money for decommissioning. Very, very sad state we live in, shame on New York!
I worked there for 8 1/2 years and can recognize everyone of those pictures. I worked in every part of that facility. So did many others. It had three backup systems in addition to the normal operational systems. It was safe as any one of them at the time. For those protestors out there consider this when you are sitting in your dark unheated house someday in the future. Driving a car to the local stores is much more dangerous then this plant was. The earth is not flat.
I did security for LILCO during the evacuation drills. No local officials participated in the drill (political suicide). The NRC ruled that NRC and FEMA officials could roleplay those positions with the assumption that if there were an accident they would participate. Their plan involved using buses to evacuate people, but no bus company volunteered. Sirens were to sound to warn people of the emergency, but on the day of the test only a fraction of them functioned and most residents didn’t hear them. They still passed this regulatory hurdle.
The whole exercise was rather surreal.
I got my start in the Nuclear industry at SNPS. I worked in the LILCO Project Office with some of the finest Engineers and Admin Staff. Before I left I was involved with the Transamerica Delaval Emergency Diesel Revalidation. I remember LILCO bringing in Failure Analysis Assoicates (Same Company with the TV Show “What Happened”) to provide high tech engineering and legal services. FAA has a trailer located by the EDG’s which looked like a NASA Control Room to me at the time. FAA had a transmitter the size of a small shoe box strapped to the Crank Shaft to measure dynamic flex, strain gauges attached to the cracked engine block. All in an effort to revalidate the design on these diesels. LILCO ended up bringing in 4 EMD Diesel’s from New England Electric and replaced the TDI’s with Colt Pielsticks EDG’s. What a shame that LILCO invested so much money only to see ~ $8 Billion wasted which was in-turn passed on to the customers because it became a Political football under Gov Mario Cuomo administration. His son is trying to shutdown Indian Point, only to leave Fossil Fuel generating stations to produce electricity. The ironic part of Shoreham is that not too far away were mutilple test Nuclear Reactors at Brookhaven National Labs which I’m not sure many Long Islanders were aware they existed there for years.
Oh, that computer room is nothing short of beautiful.
I loved/hated working there (82-94) Hated mostly because of the mind numbing shift rotation !! Slid over to BNL for 6 years. That place was crazier and less safe from many perspectives than Shoreham…for sure!! It was also an AMAZING facility…or more correctly a collection of amazing facilities.
Hey, any other Shorehamites out there?
Hey Steve, Joe Guttieri here. I remember your name, but can’t remember your face.
I was one of the Operations SRO Shift Supervisors and left in 89 right after they announce the shutdown. I ended up working for Westinghouse at the Savannah River Site. Talk about stepping into the dark ages of Nuclear power! I lasted there about 2 years after which I said goodbye to Nuclear Power.
Simply beautiful write up and amazing pictures. My question is how does one set up a tour of this facility. I’ve been trying to find a location for a film I’m working on as a school project and from the pictures this could have a lot of potential so how does one get a tour and permission to use this location?
As an employee at then New Hampshire Yankee (Seabrook Station) during the late 80’s and finally receiving our full power license in the early 90’s we watched this situation with great interest. Having done the low power testing then seeing the station shut seemed like a terrible waste. The photos are awesome……
WOW! I just came across the photos! Boy, does this bring back memories! I haven’t seen the inside of the plant since I left in 89 after the closing was announce. I was in Operations and was a Senior Reactor Operator & Shift Supervisor. I along with the Shift Manager were responsible for the operation of the plant. During the back shifts the entire plant staff reported to the operations staff. This included IC, Health Physics and Maintenance. My office, which overlooked the control room, is the room shown in the photos with the standing fan, two desks and a few bookcases. I was fortunate enough to start working at the plant in 1980 when it was approximately 75% complete, and had the opportunity to climb, crawl and walk through every square inch of the plant prior to pulling the first criticality. I was on shift when the one of the Trans America emergency diesel generators snapped it’s crankshaft, which ultimately delayed our start up and gave the anti-nuke people more ammunition to use in their arguments against opening the plant. I was also on shift for the initial criticality. Unfortunately the state of the art plant fell victim to cost overruns, delays, bad press, the anti-nuclear movement, Three Mile Island, and even Chernobyl. I loved working there, despite the horrid shift work, and I loved the people who I worked with They were the most professional people I ever had the opportunity and privilege to work with and for. I miss them all. Occasionally I get back to LI to visit family and my old house, and once in a while I drive by the plant for old times sake. Thanks for sharing the great photos and story. Too bad you couldn’t see the suppression pool directly below the reactor vessel. The suppression pool looks like something right out of a scii-fi movie. Hopefully I’ll see it in some movie someday.
Hi Joe, I remember working with you, Jerry Bobka, John Dugan Sonny Lum, Rick Reeves ,Tony Mattesich, Tom Davis, Greg Good Pete Davisson, Gerry Gauding and a lot of others. It was a great place to work with great people. Carlos Harris, Holly Hartwell, Neal Hughes and I took a job at a plant in the Midwest. Neal left after a few years and we heard he passed away about 5 years ago. Carlos, Holly and I are all retired now and I see them from time to time. I still talk to Tom Davis and Gerry Gauding every once in awhile.
I think the guys sweeping the floors made $17 – $20. an hour back then. I knew an electrician who worked there. He said when they finished a task then ripped it out and did it again. Ditto. This is what I was told first hand. I lived in Rocky Point (Next Door Town) at the time. We all knew it would never opened. At least a lot of good workers made lots and lots of money.
Yes, that’s what I was told. The plant was sitting offline so long that parts/design would become obsolete.
Hello, I enjoyed seeing all the photos! I am into photography and I enjoy taking photos of old architecture and various other things. My friend and I drove out there this past weekend to get some shots of the building but since I could not find an exact address online, we couldn’t find it! ha ha. We did stumble upon a road that took us to a view of the plant but from across the water. Can you tell me the exact address? Or tell me what is across the street from it? I know it is down a long road. We went down a bunch of those but could not find it. Also, how were you able to get a tour of the place? Who do I contact for that? Thanks!
Wow…looks like I replied to this already…and I keep coming back to the site. Like Wendell said Joe, it has a memory half life. I dream of the place far too often. The plant was a magnificent machine. And Stripers in the river to boot!!
I worked at Lilco Start Up from 83-85’ish as a secretary right out of HS. My brother and his ex also worked there. To this day, best job I ever had and just an awesome bunch of people. Wish I had stayed till the end. Grew up in WR, moved away and now am back in my hometown and there the plant still sits. Can’t say my grown up self would work at a nuclear plant, but my younger self had a blast. Ironically, my parents were anti-nuke and participated in the protests at the gate, but bless their heart, they never said a word to me about working there.
Sort of a bizarre question, but does anyone have any idea if you can visit the plant whether it be the interior or the exterior? Any sort of tours? I’m a high school history teacher and I’m teaching a nuclear history class this year to my 11th and 12th graders. It’d be a real treat to visit!
I’ve been fascinated with the Shoreham Nuclear Power plant ever since I saw it for the first time in 2005. I remember hearing about it when I was like 7 or 8, but didn’t really care/ didn’t think about it because, well, I was 7 or 8. I always wanted to drive up the road that brings you up to the place, but I didn’t want to get into trouble. I actually drove past it a few days ago. These pictures are really great, and seeing the interior of the place that’s basically frozen in time is fascinating
I’m somewhat ambivalent about the whole situation; on one hand, the cost of electricity might have been lower, and the odds of a catastrophic meltdown were/are pretty low, but on the other hand, *if* anything did happen, people living in the surrounding area would have been *really* screwed. It’s really unfortunate that the place became a 6 billion dollar paperweight, however.