The Palo Verde Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located near Tonopah, Arizona[5] about 45 miles (72 km) west of downtown Phoenix.

The power plant cools and condenses the steam that it produces by using treated sewage water from several nearby cities and towns.

The Palo Verde Generating Station is located on 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of land, and it consists of three pressurized water reactors, each with an original capacity to produce 1.27 GW of electric power.

This nuclear power plant is a major source of electric power for the densely populated parts of Southern Arizona and Southern California, e.g. the Phoenix, and Tucson, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, and San Diego, California metropolitan areas.

The Palo Verde Generating Station supplied electricity at an operating cost (including fuel and maintenance) of 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2015.

Edwin E. Van Brunt was the key APS executive in charge of engineering, construction, and early operations of the plant.

The design is a so-called 2 × 4, with each of four main reactor coolant pumps circulating more than 60,000 gallons per minute of primary-side water through 2 large steam generators.

[16] The facility's design incorporates features to enhance safety by addressing issues identified earlier in the operation of commercial nuclear reactors.

In addition, due to both the strategic interconnections of the substation and the large size of the generating station, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council considers a simultaneous loss of 2 of the 3 units the worst-case contingency for system stability.

[citation needed] In March 2003, National Guard troops were dispatched to protect the site during the launch of the Iraq War amidst fears of a terrorist attack.

Other security measures protect the reactors, including X-ray machines, explosive "sniffers", and heavy guarded turnstiles that require special identification to open.

[16] On 2 November 2007, a pipe with gunpowder residue was found in the bed of a contract worker's pickup truck during normal screening of vehicles.

Subsequent investigations involved the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration and local law enforcement.

The decision was made after the INPO discovered that electrical relays in a diesel generator did not function during tests in July and September 2006.

"Performance at Palo Verde has improved substantially and we are adjusting our oversight accordingly," said Elmo E. Collins, NRC's Region IV Administrator.

Critics claimed that that site was selected over alternatives because it was owned by a relative of Keith Turley, a person who received almost two million dollars for the land.

On April 21, 2011, the NRC renewed the operating licenses for Palo Verde's three reactors, extending their service lives from forty to sixty years.

[28] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Palo Verde was 1 in 26,316, ranking it #18 in the nation according to an NRC study published in August 2010.