H. B. Robinson Nuclear Generating Station

The H. B. Robinson Steam Electric Station, Unit 2 is a nuclear power station located near Hartsville, South Carolina. The plant consists of one Westinghouse 735 MW pressurized water reactor. The site once included a coal-fired unit that generated 174 MW (which was retired in October 2012 and demolished 2016) and a combustion turbine unit that generated 15 MW.The Robinson plant is named for H. Burton Robinson, a former executive vice president of Carolina Power & Light. The plant is located adjacent to the 2250acre Lake Robinson. The Robinson nuclear unit was the first commercial nuclear power plant in the southeastern United States and was then the largest such in the world.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.The 2010 U.S. population within of Robinson was 32,675, an increase of 2.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within was 893,536, an increase of 10.3 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Columbia (49 miles to city center).