Satsop: Before and Now

I was recently asked by a manufacturer to help engineer a conversion of a big empty building to a production facility in Satsop. For someone like me who have lived here less than 6 years, this place did not ring a bell; I even had trouble with the pronunciation. Then I was told by one of the staff that it is a giant but abandoned nuclear facility in Southwest Washington near Olympia. "It is pretty easy to find. You will see these giant concrete towers as you drive closer to the site," he said, maybe sensing my wondering thought.

I took a site visit last week. Sure enough, I saw these massive concrete tanks with blinking lights at the top as I was approaching the site. It is a big empty land with buildings clustered in the middle. I read about airplanes approaching Sea-Tac airport use these towers as a guide.

The building I am involved with is a heavy duty four story one. It is at least 1000 ft. long by 300 ft. wide with massive steel columns and beams. A lot of pits with wall thickness of 30 inches. The framings looked oversized to me but certainly appropriate for a nuclear facility. I am pretty sure seismic upgrade is not necessary.

Back in 1970s, this whole unfinished nuclear reactor facility cost billion of dollars. This is when gasoline was about 25 cents per gallon. The project was borned out of the desire of a utility company Washington Public Power Supply System to supply cheap energy to the public. The project broke ground in the late 70s, later faced stern public oppositions in 80s due to delay and ballooning construction cost, at that time estimated up to 8 billion dollars to complete. It was formally shut down in the early part of 90s. The utility company defaulted on $2.25 billion municipal bonds it sold to investors to fund the project. It was maybe the largest municipal bond default in the U.S. history.

Today, many of the buildings inside now-called Satsop Development Park are occupied by technology and distribution companies, manufacturers and training centers. It is a positive result of a program run by the Grays Harbor County to rejuvenate the local economy and make good use of this enormous facility. The county have been trying for many years to lure businesses to the site by offering favorable lease terms and capital improvement, among other incentives.

It apparently works pretty good.

If I borrow from the Obama's campaign theme, that is a positive change.