Groups call for immediate shutdown of South Texas nuclear power station in advance of continued Harvey flooding

The STP reactors are cooled by a 7,000 acre channeled reservoir surrounded by a earth/cement embankment. The top of the embankment wall is 67-feet above mean sea level. The reactor complex is situated below on a grade of 29-feet above mean sea level.The South Texas Project nuclear power station near Bay City, Texas has not yet dodged a bullet from a very powerful Hurricane Harvey. The hurricane battered the Texas Gulf Coast region from August 25 to August 30, 2017 finally dumping an all time record 50-inches of rainfall flooding the Houston metropolitan area 112 miles to the northeast of the reactors before moving on. At publishing time, the Colorado River is cresting over its banks at 47' feet, three feet above flood stage (44 feet), at the gauging station at Bay City on August 31, 2017. The Colorado runs adjacent to the East of the reactor site. But the operators are still projecting that the flood water will not impact the reactor site. The South Texas nuclear power station has remained at full power throughout the hurricane and tropical storm. The reactor site never experienced sustained winds over 73 miles per hour that would have triggered an Emergency Action Level requiring the reactor to shut down.  Given the unique cooling system, projections for flooding are a much more vague criteria left to the operator's discretion. The reactor site at no time during the storm lost offsite power from the electric grid that provides electricity to 100% of reactor safety and cooling systems. Loss Of Offsite power (LOOP) would have automatically shut down the reactors. With the loss of offsite power, nuclear power stations have back up emergency power systems, like emergency diesel generators, which provide electricity to a vital subset of those reactor safety and cooling.  A "SCRAM" however leaves operators with an extremely hot reactor core to be cooled on narrower safety margins.

Beyond Nuclear and Texas watchdog groups Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition and the South Texas Association for Responsible Energy have called upon the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the operators of the South Texas nuclear power plant to put the reactors into "its safest condition, cold shutdown" in advance of predicted flood waters that prompted Bay City authorities to declare a "mandatory evacuation" before emergency evacuation routes flooded, including those for a radiological emergency at the South Texas nuclear station. The Bay City mandatory evacuation order was later lifted and modified to a "voluntary evacuation."  

The unprecedented rainfall in the region broke a U.S. continental record. The groups had warned that the NRC and the South Texas Nuclear Operating Corporation have previously recognized that there is a credible threat from a nuclear accident initiated by a breach in a 12-mile long perimeter embankment wall that surrounds the 7,000 acre Main Cooling Reservoir for the two reactors. 

A closer look at the cooling water intake (right) and discharge piping (left) system from the reservoir down to the reactor below.

The Main Cooling Reservoir's embankment contains the all important reactor cooling water behind an earth and cement wall, the top of which is 65- to 67-feet above mean sea level. The nuclear power station is situated below, at 29-feet above mean sea level. The normal maximum operating water level in the reservoir is 47-feet above mean sea level. The rain has ceased as the hurricane is now downgraded to a tropical storm that has moved on to Louisiana. 

Throughout the storm, the NRC and South Texas Project did not publicly post any information on the status of the changing water level within the reservoir despite the unprecedented rainfall that has inundated the region.       

Similarly, as for any of the many inherently dangerous industries concentrated on the Texas Gulf Coast, the public watchdog groups maintain that the call for shutting down the reactors in advance of this powerful storm, if given the opportunity, is the prudent action when the nuclear reactors, regardless of design, can be secured in the safest and most stable condition, cold shutdown. This is one of the major lessons to be learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.

UPDATE: Beyond Nuclear questioned the NRC on the compliance of continued operation of South Texas with the potential closing of radiological emergency evacuation routes The NRC Public Affairs Office responded, "On August 30, 2017, FEMA has concluded that offsite radiological emergency preparedness remains adequate to provide 'Reasonable Assurance' and that appropriate measures can be taken to protect the health and safety of the public in a radiological emergency at the South Texas Project. At this time, FEMA is not initiating actions to conduct a Disaster Initiated Review of offsite issues within the South Texas Project 10-mile emergency planning zone."

Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann show RT

Paul Gunter was a guest on the Thom Hartmann RT show to talk about the collapse of the nuclear industry and atomic waste dumping from Fukushima's ongoing disaster and TEPCO's icewall around the intensely radioactive wreckage and three missing reactor cores.

Tony deBrum, champion of action on climate change and nuclear abolition

On October 28, 2015, Beyond Nuclear was honored to be the presenter of the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) to Tony deBrum, Former Republic of the Marshall Islands Foreign Minister. Tony worked tirelessly to bring the world’s attention to the deadly legacy of the 67 U.S. atomic bomb tests over the RMI and became a leading voice in calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Recently, deBrum had helped lead two law suits against nuclear weapons countries. He also played a pivotal role in securing the Paris Climate Accord, and dedicated his recent years to the crisis of climate change, already being felt on his low-lying islands. We are now saddened to report that Minister deBrum, 72, died August 22 at his Majuro home surrounded by family. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, deBrum won the Right Livelihood Award (pictured) in the same year he was honored by the NFFA. The Adam Horowitz film, Nuclear Savage, highlights much of deBrum’s investigative work on the horrifying health consequences to Marshall Islanders during the 12 the years of atomic bomb tests there. More

Update on August 22, 2017 by admin

Lisa Friedman published an obituary in the New York Times, "Tony de Brum, Voice of Pacific Islands on Climate Change, Dies at 72."

Update on August 24, 2017 by admin

Dan Zak, author of Almighty, has published an obituary in the Washington Post: "He saw a nuclear blast at 9, then spent his life opposing nuclear war and climate change."

Update on August 30, 2017 by admin

Robert C. Koehler wrote an obituary, "The Man Who Stood Up to Armegeddon."

Update on September 1, 2017 by admin

In its Sept. 1, 2017 The Sunflower newsletter, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) wrote:

Remembering Tony de Brum

Tony de Brum, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, passed away on August 22. Ambassador de Brum was a selfless leader in the movements for nuclear weapons abolition and climate sanity, and he will be dearly missed.

In 2014, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, led by Minister de Brum, filed the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits in the International Court of Justice and U.S. Federal Court, landmark cases against the nine nuclear-armed nations “for failing to comply with their obligations under international law to pursue negotiations in good faith for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.”

Tony de Brum was a member of the NAPF Advisory Council and received the Foundation's 2012 Distinguished Peace Leadership Award for his tireless work for justice and a world free of nuclear weapons.

Tributes to de Brum have been written from all over the world, including articles by Robert C. Koehler, the Washington Post, and The New York Times.

Mayors for Peace urge “Let Nagasaki be the last atomic-bombed site in the world.”

It is worth remembering that, while the spectre of nuclear weapons use -- between the U.S. and North Korea -- looms again, it was the work of the Hibakusha of Japan, and many others, that secured The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations on July 7, 2017, which explicitly bans nuclear weapons. It was adopted by 122 nations, a figure representing 60 percent of all United Nations’ member states.

Mayors for Peace met recently in Nagasaki and issued this Mayors for Peace Special Resolution Requesting the Early Bringing into Effect of the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons.

“We call on the cities around the world to unite in cross-border cooperation to pave the way towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.”
This call made by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the establishment of “Mayors for Peace.” Since then, we have appealed for the establishment of a legal framework to prohibit nuclear weapons as we believed it to be essential in achieving their abolition.
On July 7, 2017, these efforts bore fruit. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which explicitly bans nuclear weapons, was adopted at United Nations Headquarters by 122 nations, a figure representing 60 percent of all United Nations’ member states. This was made possible by the heartfelt appeal by the hibakusha and like-minded people that “nuclear weapons should be abolished,” an appeal that gained worldwide support and moved the nations. Mayors for Peace with 7,417 member cities from 162 countries and regions, wholeheartedly welcomes the adoption of this treaty.
The 9th General Conference of Mayors of Peace was held after the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. At the General Conference, we the members of the Mayors for Peace, renewed our determination to strive for the realization of a world without nuclear weapons.
“Let Nagasaki be the last atomic-bombed site in the world.”
Here in Nagasaki, we Mayors for Peace affirmed that these words are the common wish and will of civil society and resolved our commitment to perpetuate these words for all time.
Mayors for Peace hereby resolves to urge all nations, including the nuclear-armed states, to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and bring it into effect at the earliest possible date.
Nagasaki City, Japan
August 10, 2017

Japan editorial calls for nuclear phaseout

"First and foremost, a phase-out of nuclear power should define the foundation of the country’s new future perspective." That was the bold statement in an editorial in the August 14 Asahi Shimbun. Nuclear has become deeply unpopular in Japan since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster (pictured.)

The editorial notes the global trend away from nuclear power and the need to conform to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. "A big wave of change is occurring on a global scale. For example, there are moves, mostly in advanced industrialized nations, for pulling the plug on nuclear power. There is also a trend for moving from coal-fired thermal power generation, given that the Paris Agreement has now taken effect for fighting global warming. Renewable energy options, such as wind and solar power, are spreading rapidly."

It further notes: "The forthcoming edition of Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan should no longer define atomic energy as a mainstay source of power. Minimizing dependency on nuclear power should be designated a priority issue instead of being left as a hollow promise." And the article concludes that: "Renewable energy sources have already replaced thermal energy and nuclear energy as the leading destinations of global investments into the electric power sector.

"Japan should quickly switch its energy policy instead of turning its back on the international trend."

Read the full article.