Hurricane Irma bearing down on FL reactors, Hurricane Harvey water recedes from TX nuke

The Texas Gulf Coast cleanup from Hurricane Harvey has just begun and flood waters have receded from the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear power station near Bay City. While the Texas nuclear power plant dodged the bullet, now an extremely dangerous Hurricane Irma is barreling towards Florida. Four Florida Power & Light (FPL) reactors at two nuclear power stations (Turkey Point 3 & 4 and St. Lucie 1 & 2) on the Atlantic Coast are in the projected path of this Category 4 superstorm. Turkey Point 3 & 4, are located in Homestead, FL just south of Miami on the Biscayne Bay. St. Lucie 1 & 2 are on Hutchinson Island between the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Indian River to the west. FPL continues to track Irma's path and in anticipation of receiving hurricane force winds (presently 180 mph) announced that it will shut down the reactors in advance of Irma’s arrival to put the four atomic reactors in cold shutdown, their safest and most reliable condition. Turkey Pint is anticipated to have hurricane force winds by early Sunday morning. 

By contrast with the approach of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, STP nuclear power station made the decision to remain at full power throughout the storm. In fact, STP never experienced sustained hurricane wind levels above the 73 mph threshold that would have required shutdown. The reactors never lost offsite power from the grid that would have automatically shut down the units. However, significant flooding of the STP evacuatoin planning zone did occur including flooding of the reactor site. Bay City, TX, located 12-miles from the STP reactor site is one of the nuclear emergency host recepetion centers.  Matagorda County and Bay City officials had ordered two "mandatory evacuations" on August 24 and 25 disrupting the nuclear emergeny plan in anticipation of Colorado River flooding. The mandatory evacuation was lowered to "voluntary evacuation at your own risk" on August 29.  Bay City and Matagorda County personnel are vital participants in the STP radiological evacuation plan providing emergency workers, police, fire, medical support and evacuation bus drivers. Evacuations routes throughout the county became flooded and impassible. 

Both of the Florida reactor sites are designed for a “probable maximum hurricane” based on a hypothetical super cyclone recurring on a 100-year interval.  Turkey Point 3 & 4 nuclear power station’s plant grade is 18-feet above mean low water and co-located with the oil-fired Turkey Point Unit 1 and natural gas-fired Unit 2.  The reactor units are designed to withstand sustained winds of up to 145 mph and from a probable maximum storm surge of 18.3-feet and with external flood protection to 20-feet. Components vital to safety are protected up to 22-feet with the very important intake cooling water (ICW) pumps protected up to 22.5-feet above the mean low water level. Were these cooling water pumps to be flooded it would force the shutdown of the reactors’ cooling water intake system.

The St. Lucie nuclear power station is situated 19-feet above the mean low water level and designed to withstand a maximum storm surge of 17.2-feet with sustained winds of up to 194 mph.

Nuclear power stations are robust facilities with redundant safety systems. This is because nuclear power is an inherently dangerous technology with potentially unforgiving consequences should a severe accident occur.

The story of a previous hurricane ordeal at Turkey Point reveals that a nuclear power plant is only as strong as its weakest link and how important a role luck may or may not play in protecting public safety and the environment.

On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida at the site of the Turkey Point nuclear power station. Andrew blew in as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 145 mph and gusts in excess of 160 mph. The decision had been made to shut down the reactors in advance. The hurricane knocked out all electrical power from the grid to reactor safety systems and the site’s emergency diesel generators successfully started up. The nuclear power station would be without offsite power for five days relying upon onsite emergency power to constantly cool the extremely hot reactor fuel protecting it from damage.

Each of the station's diesel generators consumed 100 gallons of fuel per hour, eventually requiring fuel oil shipments to be diverted from emergency facilities also without offsite power including hospitals. Andrew caused extensive destruction to on-site buildings and structures, damaging two 400-foot tall emission stacks for the two fossil fuel generating units. The cracked stack from the Unit 1 oil-fired electricity station threatened to fall on the nuclear power plants’ emergency diesel generator building which was vital in keeping the reactors from melting down during the five days without offsite power.

In addition, wind-driven missiles punctured one of the station’s 12,000 barrel fuel oil tanks just 30-feet from the tank bottom, spilling 110,000 gallons of combustible fuel oil that was then blown onto the nuclear site. As the fuel oil level in the tank fell due to the puncture, transfer pumps from large bulk oil storage tanks received a low-level alarm and automatically started transferring more combustible oil to the damaged tank that continued to flow out onto the reactor site. 

During the passing of the eye of the storm, station personnel managed to get to the power block and stop the oil flow.  However, Hurricane Andrew’s high winds had also blown over a high tower tank onto the nuclear power station’s fire suppression system rendering it inoperable. Given there was no operable fire protection system at Turkey Point, as only luck would have it, there was no ignition of the on-site oil spill. During the storm, the site telephone systems and radio towers were knocked and all offsite communication was lost for four hours and would not be reliable for 24 hours and all roads to the station were blocked by debris for days. 

The decision to shut down nuclear power stations in advance of extreme weather should not be made just on nuclear power plant conditions that a storm may or may not bring.  Operators, regulators and emergency authorities need to factor in the broader impacts to the radiological emergency planning zone that include the closure of evacuation routes and reception/medical facilities and the attrition of radiological emergency responders.

Where is Irma headed? Are Florida reactors under threat?

There is no certainty yet about whether Hurricane Irma, which could make landfall as a category 4 or 5, will hit Florida and, if so, which parts. But reactors at Turkey Point, 35 miles south of Miami, and St. Lucie, 25 miles south of Vero Beach, could lie in its path. When Hurricane Harvey was headed to South Texas, we called for the precautionary shutdown of the two South Texas Project reactors there. Harvey's sustained winds never topped the 73 mph threshold for requiring the reactor to shut down. South Texas dodged a bullet. The nuclear power station never lost offsite electric power from the grid that would have automatically shut the reactors down.  The surrounding area in, around and on the South Texas nuclear power plant flooded and emergency personnel already fully stretched or themselves evacuated, the South Texas operators refused to shut down the plant. Beyond Nuclear staff are monitoring the progress of Irma and endeavoring to assess the risk to Florida nuclear plants -- and possibly others in South Carolina depending on Irma's eventual path. Rest assured, we will be making similar calls for public safety first, should communities around any affected nuclear power plants face an imminent danger. (Image of Irma: National Hurricane Center.)f

One year to stop startup of flawed French reactor

As it turns out, ostriches don’t really bury their heads in the sand. But since this is a popular metaphor, its application could never be more appropriate than when applied to the goings-on around the French EPR reactor project in Flamanville on the Normandy coast.

The EPR was once touted as the great white hope of the French nuclear sector. Since it has instead been an abject failure, the nuclear powers that be have plunged into such denial about it that even a therapist would wring her hands and despair of the patient.

The EPR at Flamaville, the flagship site, is years behind schedule. So is its EPR counterpart in Finland. The EPR design is also targeted for the Hinkley-C site in the UK but is not underway there yet. Finland is three times over budget at $10 billion. The Flamanville budget has also more than tripled, to $12.5 billion and counting. It has a flawed vessel head, forged at Areva’s Le Creusot factory, now exposed to have not only manufactured faulty safety parts for numerous other reactors, but falsified its quality control documents as well.

“If the nuclear industry wants to have a future it cannot afford more projects like this,” bemoaned a Finnish utility executive.

But for the French nuclear regulator it’s all “pas de probleme!” The timing, they admit, might be “tight,” the flawed reactor vessel head “is not of the best possible quality”, and there may still be “some difficulties” ahead. But the regulator is planning to switch on Flamanville anyway, possibly by the end of 2018. Never mind the expense, and never mind the fact any severe shaking could rupture the flawed vessel head and lead to a meltdown. People of Normandy be damned!

We have just over one year left to fight Flamanville and prevent what could be a lethal decision to start up this untested reactor. Beyond Nuclear continues to work with our French anti-nuclear colleagues in every capacity available to support their efforts to get this project permanently stopped.

The high price for activism in Africa

In a reminder of how dangerous it is to oppose the nuclear power industry in some countries comes disturbing news from Tanzania. Tundu Lissu, an outspoken lawyer, human rights activist, opposition member of the Tanzanian Parliament, and a critic of extractive industries, was shot and wounded in Dodoma on September 7 when returning home from a session of parliament.

Gunter Wippel, a leading advocate against uranium mining and who administers the international Uranium Network, met Lissu on several occasions. He writes: “Tundu, whom I had met during our first information tour on the issue of uranium mining, attended and spoke out at several occasions at our conferences and supported our partners in Tanzania critical of uranium mining repeatedly. 

“He was supposed to attend next week's conference "Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes of the Nuclear Age" in Basel, Switzerland.” 

Conflicting reports have Lissu in critical and in stable condition. It is unclear at the moment why he was shot and who by but he is a vocal opponent of Tanzanian president, John Magufuli. 

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Beyond Nuclear joins ocean and conservation groups to protest Japan dumping radioactive water into Pacific

Beyond Nuclear has signed onto a new letter from marine wildlife, environmental and conservation groups calling on authorities in Japan to avoid at all cost the dumping of hundreds and thousands of tons of radioactively contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

Currently, Japanese utility, TEPCO, is planning to release 777,000 tons of waste containing radioactive tritium into the Pacific Ocean from its stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear site. The contaminated water, used to cool the destroyed reactors to avoid further catastrophe, has been stored in tanks on site, but the facility is running out of space. 

The groups urge TEPCO and the Japanese nuclear regulator to find alternatives to once again using our oceans as an irresponsible dumping ground for man-made garbage. Environmental and anti-nuclear groups, along with local Japanese fishermen, have also been calling for TEPCO not to dump the radioactive water into the ocean.

“The time for using world oceans as a dump is over,” reads the letter. To date, the groups include: Turtle Island Restoration Network; WildEarth Guardians; Beyond Nuclear; Endangered Species Coalition; Klamath Forest Alliance; Environmental Protection Information Center; WILDCOAST; Ocean Defenders Alliance; Kurmalliance; Pacific Marine Mammal Center; World Ocean Observatory; Ocean Institute; and Elders Climate Action. The groups are encouraging other organizations to sign on before the letter is submitted on September 3rd.

Read the full press release.

Organizations should contact the Turtle Island Restoration Network to sign on to the letter.