Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is a two-unit pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant owned by Mr. Burns and is the main source of power in Springfield.

Profile
The plant is notorious for being poorly maintained, largely due to owner Charles Montgomery Burns' miserliness and safety director Homer Simpson's incompetence. A surprise inspection found 342 violations with an estimated $56 million required to bring the plant up to code, money which Burns refused to spend. Notable safety violations that have been seen include luminous rats in the bowels of the plant, pipes and drums leaking radioactive waste, the disposal of waste in a children's playground, plutonium used as a paperweight, cracked cooling towers (fixed in one episode using a piece of chewing gum), skeletons in the basement, dangerously high Geiger counter readings around the perimeter of the plant, flashing red alert signs being ignored by employees, the creation of a mutant subspecies of three-eyed fish and a horrific giant spider. The Emergency Exits are simply painted on.

The core of the reactor is a Fissionator 1952 Slow-Fission Reactor. The plant has come close to meltdowns multiple times, but has always avoided catastrophe, often due to Homer's blind luck (and in one case, a dog employee briefly waking up to avert the meltdown during a particularly lazy day).

Security is also shown to be lax, as a ten-year-old spy from Albania disguised as a foreign exchange student named Adil took pictures and got information of the plant simply by asking Homer for a tour. Numerous times, the Simpson family have been able to break in easily, on many occasions shown to have keys hidden under fake rocks (on one occasion one even being shown inside).

Sector 6-F
This was another sector that was mentioned by Mr. Burns in the episode Take My Life, Please which is a better sector than 7-G with a higher payout. Chip Davis was described as "the life of Sector 6-F" but passed away prior to the episode Four Regrettings and a Funeral.

Sector 7-B
This is a sector that appeared when Homer escaped the plant in the episode "Duffless". It contains a hideously gigantic spider which can only be overcome by quoting the Bible or decking it with a rock.

Sector 7-G
Sector 7-G is the location of Homer Simpson's workplace, used to help prevent a meltdown in the reactor core. Homer works on a T-437 Safety Console, which displays many buttons and features, including a meter that shows the temperature of the core and a button that controls the emergency override circuit(presumably eccs) which must be pressed in the event of a meltdown. It also contains a self-destruct button for the plant, which Homer, while asleep, pressed one time. Emergency doors lock down Sector 7-G whenever a meltdown is imminent. The doors directly behind the Safety Console lead to the Heavy Water Piping Facility.

Sector 7-G was once referred to by Mr. Burns as a 'testicle-shriveling torture chamber' and the people who work there have at various times been classed as 'drones', 'organ banks','schmoles', 'carbon blobs', 'boobs', 'cabbage heads', 'chair moisteners' and 'fork and spoon operators'. The radiation has been showed to sterilize workers, namely Homer. The room also contained extremely high voltage cables that were presumably used to power the room. These cables were infamous for being the cause of former employee Frank Grimes' death due to his insanity causing him to grab the wires while delusional and mockingly referring to himself as Homer Simpson.

Sector 7-G is named after the production code used for episodes in the first series (7Gxx).

Cooling Towers
The plant has two Cooling Towers. They appear the same color with the design of an atom with its nucleus and electrons pictured. Coffee mugs, pencil holders and other cylindrical based shapes can be seen around the plant in the style of the cooling towers.

Executive Building
The Executive Building, or Sector 22-F, is a building in the back of the power plant. It features a bowling alley, open bar, and maids. Accountants work there.

Mr. Burns' office
Mr. Burns' office is located at the top floor of the plant. His office contains multiple trap doors that drop unwanted visitors far from the office (at least one of which contains a pool filled with electric eels; another one contains alligators) and suction tubes from the ceiling that can send people to an area in the Middle East, which, according to Smithers, was there even before Burns worked at the plant and that not even Burns realized where it went. When Smithers temporarily taking control of the Nuclear Power plant due to Burns being arrested, accidentally activated the trap door while he was standing on it trying to move his items into the office, only to emerge back in the room shortly afterwards. Burns' desk hides several buttons that can trigger the traps in the room, release attack hounds, and also call security. There is a small array of security screens on the wall, and the bookcases conceal an escape pod and a germ-proof vault. Burns' office also contains a stuffed mounted polar bear, which conceals a secret access-way, or 'corpse hatch'/'innocence tube' which leads to the sewers. Burns used it to dump the body of Smithers' father after he was killed while preventing a core meltdown many years ago due to wanting to create his own conspiracy theory from their being "all the rage" at the time. There is also a balcony behind the huge window.

Cafeteria
The Plant cafeteria is where the Nuclear Power Plant staff have their lunches. There is a rotating cake tray which is turned by a man pushing a lever on a giant wheel and axle a few meters under the Cafeteria.

Decontamination Showers
A shower room where the staff members of the Plant wash themselves at the end of each work day. It was once shown that these showers have a tendency to spout fire.

Auditorium
The Nuclear Power Plant has a large auditorium where awards to staff members are given and company-wide meetings are held.

Employee Break Room
A break room where most staff spend their coffee breaks. The room is usually stocked with coffee and donuts. There is a bulletin board on the wall that has a poster showing how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver.

Plant Operations Center
Homer uses a deformed fish to gain entry to the room (the security machine mistook to the fish for Mr. Burns). Homer attempts to release a mixture of "spoiled milk and utility-grade chicken" into the air-conditioning system. He is stopped by FBI Agent Annie Crawford, but Lisa manages to trigger the machine anyway. It us all to no avail even though as it is revealed the air-conditioning does not work.

Ideas to Improve The Plant
When the Plant held a competition for children to come up with ideas for the power plant, Frank Grimes tricked Homer into entering it. Some competitors who entered were Ralph Wiggum, who entered a dream house, and Martin Prince, who entered a futuristic power plant. Homer added flaps to lower wind, and red and green stripes (which he and Mr. Burns felt were pretty "sharp"). He eventually won, leading Frank Grimes to have an outburst over the stupidity of the plant.

Founder

 * Wainwright Montgomery Burns †

Owner

 * Wainwright Montgomery Burns (1882-1966) †
 * Charles Montgomery Burns (1966-present)
 * Canary Montgomery Burns (Released)

Video Games
The Nuclear Power Plant acted as the final level for the game, with it factoring into the titular aliens' plans of creating their ultimate weapon. They were to steal several carbon rods from the nuclear power plant, with Bart and his family trying to retrieve the carbon rods. Ultimately they succeeded in thwarting the aliens' plans, with the aliens, gaining some respect for Bart's prowess, rewarding him by carving an image of Bart on Mt. Rushmore.
 * Bart vs. the Space Mutants

The Nuclear Power Plant, or more specifically, Mr. Burns' office, was the final level in the game, where the Simpsons Family fought against Smithers and Mr. Burns (the latter via a mech).
 * The Simpsons Arcade

The Nuclear Power Plant, or more specifically, Sector 7G, made a brief appearance where it had alarms blaring warning of a core breach, while Homer's chair was unoccupied save for a sign saying "Gone Bowling".
 * The Simpsons Bowling

The Power Plant appears in the beginning of the level "Post-Apocalypse", where it was the reason why the level appeared as a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to a meltdown.
 * Virtual Bart

The power plant acted as a stop on the map of the same name, or rather, the entrance and cooling towers did. In addition, one of the missions had Bart drive Homer back to the power plant to sneak him back in without getting caught by Mr. Burns due to Homer skipping out to watch a baseball game, while another mission had Snake Jailbird smash 20 containers of nuclear waste while on parole as part of his "community service."
 * The Simpsons Road Rage

The power plant was first mentioned in the first level with the mission S-M-R-T, where Marge assured Homer he can go to work after he delivers Lisa's school project to her, much to his chagrin, as he didn't even want to leave the house. It was also mentioned at the ending of the aforementioned mission, where Lisa told Homer that Marge called and wanted to talk to him about something important before he heads off to work, with Homer reacting in the usual manner. In the leadup to the mission "Office Spaced" as well as the mission itself, Homer has to destroy Smithers' limo via the Plow King (whom he borrowed from an inebriated Barney) to prevent him from discovering his scorpion farm (as not only was Homer late for work, but the day also happened to be his work evaluation day by Smithers). After blowing up his convertible, Homer then headed over to work, though he was paranoid over the security camera due to thinking sexy girls will watch him while he sleeps, and decided to destroy the power source for the cameras. After doing so, he then tried to take a nap, although Mr. Burns announced that it was time to go home before he could get the chance, much to Homer's chagrin. Homer later passed through the plant to tail a mysterious black van. He later returned to the plant to try and persuade a drunk Carl Carlson to help him spy on and expose Mr. Burns, although he ultimately had to race Smithers due to his possibly overhearing him.
 * The Simpsons Hit and Run

Although no missions occurred at the plant directly in level 4, Marge does pass through the plant a few times in some of the missions.

It also appeared in Level 7, playing a vital role for the final levels: First, Homer went there to meet with Professor Frink after tailing an alien probe car, where he learned of the Rigellians' weakness: Nuclear Waste, with his proceeding to use various nuclear waste and various cars to take out the mothership over Springfield Elementary School. He also briefly visited the plant to ask Mr. Burns for the locations of Nuclear Waste buried around Springfield.

The Future
It is revealed that the plant is going to eventually upgrade the number of cooling towers (and possibly reactors) from two to at least five, perhaps as a response to the future growth of Springfield or its energy demand.

A Dec in the future, Lenny and Carl have been promoted to the executive board, while Milhouse Van Houten has become a supervisor. The plant is operated mainly by robots, but Homer still retains his familiar position at Sector 7G.

It is also known that it will have many lawsuits, as written in the billboard at the entrance ("Still operating, despite lawsuits").

Behind the Laughter
The design and folly of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is often rumored to be based on the real life Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Matt Groening's home town of Portland, Oregon, or the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. However, Antonia Coffman, Groening's publicist, has said that the Springfield plant's design is generic and that "the Springfield Nuclear Power plant was not based on the Trojan Plant or any other power plant in the country." Trojan Nuclear Power Plant opened in 1976 and was infamous for its poor construction and maintenance, resulting in steam generator leaks which ultimately caused the plant to close in 1993 (although other plants replaced theirs). The cooling tower of the Trojan nuclear power plant was finally demolished on May 21, 2006.

Trivia

 * During the first season's intro, the sign before the Nuclear Power Plant is written as "Welcom to Springfield Nuclear Power Plant" with a letter "e" missing.
 * A cawing crow is heard in nearly every establishing shot of the power plant; this is parodied in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore", in which a cow can be heard mooing during an outside shot of the India based power plant.
 * The SNPP maintains a map of the United States, indicating the status of all of the various nuclear facilities. Homer's job includes replacing the burnt out light bulbs on the map. But, because the plant refuses to hire an assistant, Homer is unable to change all the light bulbs.
 * The Map displayed above Homer's Panel is incorrect considering that Utah has never had a single Nuclear Power Plant ever.
 * The Power Plant has at least 714 employees, all of whom fit the description of "incompetent" "lazy" "clumsy" "dim-witted" "monstrously ugly."
 * The wall that Homer faces in his work station changes between episodes. In some episodes, the wall is a window showing reactor piping; in others, it is a map of nuclear sites around the country, a solid wall, or a wall with a plaque saying "Don't forget: you're here forever" that has been rearranged by Homer to say "Do it for her" with pictures of Maggie.
 * The plant's condition has actually deteriorated over the years. In one early episode, Smithers estimates that it would cost $56 million to bring the plant up to code, while in a later episode, the new German owners of the plant discover that the cost has soared to $100 million.
 * According to a commentary on a Simpsons' DVD, it's stated that there is an actual Homer Simpson working in a nuclear power plant. It is not sure if this is true, since there have been no other sources stating this.
 * There is a real nuclear facility near Preston, United Kingdom called Springfield's nuclear fuel production facility.
 * In the episode, The Seemingly Never-Ending Story, The Rich Texan wins the plant in a bet, although this may just have been made up by Bart as an excuse for not studying for his test.
 * "Activities" include "Nap Time" and "Quiet Time"; Homer ruined them both, with his screaming one day.
 * An all-ages music venue in Augusta, Georgia bears the name "Sector 7G."
 * In The Simpsons Hit &amp; Run video game, you can press the 'Vent' button on a reactor, causing radioactive emissions, even though the button says "Do Not Press!"
 * Also in Hit and Run you can drive through the core and discover that Mr. Burns' house is connected to the plant.34.JPG
 * In the episode Flaming Moe, it was revealed that the plant has workers who work in the night while Homer and others work in the day. The Night Workers almost look-like the Day Workers.
 * One of the nuclear power plant workers in the X-Files Episode "The Beginning" (Season 6, Episode 1) is named Homer, a reference to Homer Simpson (Sherman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium and The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press, pp. 167–168).
 * It is unknown what happens to the plant operations during the Trappuccino event in The Simpsons Movie. Since power outages plague the town 37 days into the incident, it was likely shut down to avoid suffocating the town from its emissions.
 * In the IOS and Android game, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Homer is working but is too busy playing 'The Happy Little Elf game' on his MyPad rather than paying attention to his job. This leads to a meltdown which causes the nuclear plant to explode obliterating Springfield and it citizens in the process and the player has to help Homer rebuild Springfield in their own style.
 * In Tapped out you rebuild the plant at level 11 in a non-premium quest line and unlock Mr Burns. The power plant itself comes in three parts; the cooling towers, reactor core and the control building, you unlock Mr. Burns from the cooling towers and the player can arrange the segments in any order or way they like or can just have the sections together.