March 11, 2011?
For information purposes only.
Stay Informed.
-MP
UPDATE: Alert Ended at Plant according to company officials. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/31/storm-sandy-exelon-oystercreek-idUSL1E8LV2IL20121031
Feds: “Atmospheric steam dump” at New Jersey nuclear plant — All 6 circulators lost at Salem due to debris, high river level
Published: October 30th, 2012 at 8:07 pm ET
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Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
h/t Indiana Harry, jdotg
Notification Time: 10/30/2012 at 4:10 [ET]See also: Now 5 Nuke Plants with Problems from Sandy: New Jersey's Salem reactor shuts down as water pumps "not available" -- Trouble with both units at New York's 9 Mile Point -- Also Oyster Creek, Indian Point, Limerick
Event Time: 10/30/2012 at 1:09 [EDT]
[...]
“Salem Unit 1 was operating at 100% reactor power when a loss of 4 condenser circulators required a manual reactor trip in accordance with station procedures. The cause of the 4 circulators being removed from service was due to a combination of high river level and detritus from Hurricane Sandy’s transit.
“All control rods inserted. A subsequent loss of the 2 remaining circulators required transition of decay heat removal from condenser steam dumps to the 11-14 MS10s (atmospheric steam dump). Decay heat removal is from the 11/12 Aux Feed Pumps to all 4 steam generators via the 11-14 MS10s. [...]
Published: October 30th, 2012 at 8:07 pm ET
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Uncontrolled release of Tritium and maybe more…
Insane greedy nucleocrats. The plants need to be shuttered forever, but at the least they should have powered them all down five days ago.
Normally that one is low 30s but this morning high 70s clicks per minute.
The best is yet to come as we will have to kick Entergy and Exelon out of the Northeast when one of their cans gets cookin'. It only takes less than an hour to start an unstoppable meltdown.
Would man be riding bicycles if they had no brakes? How does a sane man invent such a stupid thing as nuclear power generation?
Oh yeah, I forgot, somebody made MONEY doing this
http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pe/2012/10/exelon-files-uprate-request-for-nuclear-power-plant.html
1) Execute atmosphereic steam dump.
2) Turn on core spray subsystem
3) if core continues heating, run
They should be sued for negligence. They knew this major storm was coming and what kinds of risks it could pose to the plant, but they irresponsibly chose to operate at full power anyway.
If it really was about safety, then things would be done differently.
A statement from, Andre-Claude Lacoste, 70, the outgoing head of the French Autorite de Surete Nucleaire.
Japan-Style Nuclear Safety Errors Abound, Regulator Warns
Japan’s nuclear safety failures that led to last year’s disaster at Fukushima are being repeated in other countries that operate atomic reactors, according to France’s top regulator.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-29/japan-style-nuclear-safety-errors-abound-french-regulator-says
USA -Nuclear Industry plans nuclear response centers by …………….2014
29 October 2012
The US nuclear industry is preparing for future emergencies byestablishing two regional centres that should operate from mid-2014. Vital equipment to maintain safety in an extreme event will be able to reach any of the USA’s nuclear plants within 24 hours.
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/10/31/usa-nuclear-industry-plans-nuclear-response-centers-by-2014/
2 years to have it in place then
Slight hitch, bad planning! USA- 39 percent of nuclear-industry workers will reach retirement by 2016
5:59 PM, Oct 27, 2012
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/10/29/slight-hitch-bad-planning-usa-39-percent-of-nuclear-industry-workers-will-reach-retirement-by-2016/
then they wont have anyone to man the equipment.. hard to recruit to the nuclear industry for some reason obviously.. its the same the world over…
decommission now! while people who know what they are doing are still alive.. imo
** "In April 1998, the NRC cited the owner of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey for unmonitored releases of radioactively contaminated gas (NRC, 1998). Oyster Creek uses two
isolation condensers to remove decay heat produced by the reactor core when the normal heat removal systems are unavailable. Oyster Creek’s Final Safety Analysis Report stated that the isolation condensers would be filled with clean, non-radioactive water. But for nearly 30 years, workers had been filling the condensers with radioactively contaminated water. As that water evaporated, it was vented directly to the atmosphere."
** "In December 1996, the NRC cited the owner of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey for the accidental release of 133,000 gallons of radioactively contaminated water into Barnegat Bay (NRC, 1996)."
** "August 2009: Workers discovered radioactively contaminated water leaking into the ground from where a condensate transfer pipe passed through the turbine building wall."
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/nuclear_power/nuclear-power-radioactive-releases.pdf
A brick house located just west of the canal on Carroll Street had steam rising from its foundation. A man who said he was a resident but wouldn't provide his name said the basement had filled with water from the canal in the night, and now the electrical wiring was steaming. He said the fire department told him it would not come unless the structure was physically on fire. I'll wait, and then it'll go up like a tinderbox, he said.
From:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sandy-split-new-york-city-in-two/1024451/0
The question is: Will the fire brigade wait till the nuke is on fire?
GULP
You'll never really know, until it's too late, and that's the problem.
Photo for EXAMPLE Only:
(TMI night view)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/03/31/business/mile/mile-blog480.jpg
Prof. Busby -Oyster Creek proximity to New York poses threat during flooding -(Video)
You can never make nuclear power stations perfectly safe. You can’t make it impossible for these situations to occur and when they do occur, they can be pretty catastrophic, Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risks told RT. The Professor added Oyster Creek plant was a particular risk, located just 65 miles from New York City.
All of the power stations in the area were built against the express wishes of the people who lived there. They were pushed through by some kind of federal axe which overcame the opposition of the people, he said.
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/10/31/prof-busby-oyster-creek-proximity-to-new-york-poses-threat-during-flooding-video/
mentions a long shot possibility of meltdown too!
Salem Units are PWR type (like San Onofre).
At least with the PWR Salem units, the radioactive water is under very high pressure so it won't boil, no steam, and is suppose to travel in a short closed loop to transfer its heat in exchangers. Major leaks would occur in the heat exchangers when the piping cracks or wears thin like with San Onofre.
After a PWR shuts down if they are blowing off excess steam from a heat exchanger loop that drives the turbines, then there should be very little radioactive releases while the reactor (loop) is cooling down. With no steam turbine being driven, you still use the steam loop to cool the pressurized water reactor loop via the heat exchangers. Unless there is something they are not telling us.
Of course, some noble gases and tritium get released constantly (tritium is almost impossible to contained) so being on the east coast you would hope it blows or flows out to sea, normally. With flooding it might just hang around.
Would it be to much to ask to at least shut down all the (25?) BWRs in the US, now?
That's why it's sometimes called Oyster Creak. It ought to be retired.
rs are leaking
http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/articles/personal-injury/federal/how-do-i-bring-a-personal-injury-action-again.html
NRC: Alert still in effect at NJ nuclear plant — High water levels in Oyster Creek’s water intake structure remain
Published: October 30th, 2012 at 11:55 pm ET
Email Article
By ENENews
Source: U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Date: Oct. 30, 2012 5 p.m.
Watch nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen discuss the alert at Oyster Creek here
Published: October 30th, 2012 at 11:55 pm ET
Email Article
By ENENews
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Ruptured gas lines in areas near New Jersey’s Oyster Creek nuclear plant — ABC: Concern town could be set ablaze, reporter smells oil (VIDEO)
Published: October 30th, 2012 at 9:30 pm ET
Email Article
By ENENews
Source: ABC News
Author: Lauren Effron
Date: Oct. 30, 2012 at 8:03p ET
Seaside heights is 10 miles north of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.
NBC Philadelphia is reporting similar problems in Ship Bottom, 11 miles to the south of Oyster Creek:
Flyover footage shows new area nearby giant sinkhole saturated with water (VIDEO)
Published: October 4th, 2012 at 4:13 pm ET
Email Article
By ENENews
Watch the flyover footage here
Published: October 4th, 2012 at 4:13 pm ET
Email Article
By ENENews
UPDATE: - Alert at NJ Oyster Creek reactor ends as water recedes - Reuters
Related News
Oct 31 (Reuters) - U.S. power company Exelon Corp said Wednesday it ended an alert at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey after high water from Hurricane Sandy returned to normal levels.
Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest operating reactor, declared the rare "alert" Monday night after water levels at the plant rose more than 6.5 feet (2 meters) above normal, potentially affecting the "water intake structure" that pumps cooling water through the plant.
The pumps were not essential to keep the reactor cool since the plant has been shut for planned refueling since Oct. 22.
Exelon, however, was concerned that if the water rose more than 7 feet it could submerge the service water pump motor used to cool the water in the spent fuel pool, potentially forcing the company to use emergency water supplies from the in-house fire suppression system to keep the used uranium fuel rods in the pool from overheating, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Monday night.
Exelon said there was no danger to public health or safety. The plant has numerous means of keeping the water in the spent fuel pool cool, including the use of a portable pump moved to the water intake structure and the fire suppression system.
Exelon said in a statement on Wednesday the winds and heavy rains generated tides 6.8 feet above mean sea level at the 43-year-old plant's water intake. But they were never high enough to top the intake canal banks or affect operation of the plant's equipment.
After water levels returned to normal and offsite power was restored, Exelon said the plant exited the alert early Wednesday morning.
The Oyster Creek alert was only the third time this year that the second-lowest of the NRC's four emergency action levels was triggered.
The incident at the relatively small 636-megawatt Oyster Creek plant, which is about 60 miles (95 km) east of Philadelphia on the New Jersey Coast, came as Sandy made landfall as the largest Atlantic storm ever, bringing up to 90 mile per hour winds and 13-foot storm surges in the biggest test of the industry's emergency preparedness since the Fukushima disaster in Japan a year and a half ago.
INDUSTRY PASSES TEST
Despite the alert -- which is a serious but not catastrophic event that signals a "potential substantial degradation in the level of safety" -- the U.S. nuclear industry is broadly seen as having passed the test. About a dozen alerts have been issued in the past four years, according to NRC press releases.
The NRC said Wednesday morning it was beginning to return to normal inspection coverage for the nuclear power plants in the U.S. Northeast.
In addition to the event at Oyster Creek, three reactors were shut during the storm. They were Entergy Corp's Indian Point 3 in New York, Public Service Enterprise Group Inc's Salem 1 in New Jersey and Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's Nine Mile Point 1 in New York. The NRC said all safety systems responded as designed at the plants that shut.
The NRC also said three other plants reduced power due to the storm. They were Dominion Resources Inc's Millstone 3 in Connecticut, Entergy's Vermont Yankee in Vermont and Exelon's Limerick in Pennsylvania. By early Wednesday, the reactors had begun to return to full service.