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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Entries by admin (2761)

Tuesday
Aug232011

Beyond Nuclear press release - Mother Nature sends a warning

Beyond Nuclear today issued a press release that warned regulators and the White House not to ignore the warnings from Mother Nature and to act quickly to begin a nuclear phaseout. The press release began: A 5.9 magnitude earthquake that was felt up and down the US east coast was centered in Mineral, Virginia, home to the two-reactor North Anna nuclear power plant operated by Dominion Energy.  North Anna sits just 90 miles south of Washington, DC. The plant automatically shut down following a loss of offsite power, but electricity is still needed to cool the reactor core and fuel pools.

"Once again, Mother Nature is warning us that nuclear power is the most brittle of electrical power systems," said Paul Gunter, director of Reactor Oversight for Beyond Nuclear. "In times of national crisis or natural disaster, nuclear power becomes more of a liability than an asset," he said.

Read the rest of the press release here.

Tuesday
Aug232011

Earthquake sensors removed from North Anna in 1990s due to budget cuts

NRC's file photo of North Anna nuclear power plant in Mineral, VAThe Raw Story reports that, "According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) removed all seismographs from around the plant in the 1990s due to budget cuts." The story also reports that NRC (the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has determined the two reactors at North Anna nuclear power plant are the 7th most at risk from earthquakes amongst the 104 operating reactors in the U.S. Despite these risks, Dominion Nuclear plans to build a new third reactor at the site.

Tuesday
Aug232011

"Alert" declared at North Anna and "Unusual Events" at 12 more nuclear power plants due to earthquake

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a media release re: the Virginia earthquake, stating it is monitoring conditions at the North Anna nuclear power plant, located very close to the quake's epicenter in Mineral, VA. North Anna nuclear power plant has declared an "Alert," the second of four levels of increasing risk and severity.  The media release also states:

"Plants declaring Unusual Events, which indicate a potential decrease in plant safety, include Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna and Limerick in Pennsylvania; Salem, Hope Creek and Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Surry in Virginia, Shearon Harris in North Carolina and D.C. Cook and Palisades in Michigan. All these plants continue to operate while plant personnel examine their sites."

The 12 plant sites comprise 19 atomic reactor units. Peach Bottom 2 & 3, Hope Creek, and Oyster Creek are General Electric Boiling Water Reactors of the Mark 1 design, essentially identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, devastated by an earthquake and tsunami beginning on March 11th. Limerick is comprised of two GE BWR Mark 2 design reactors, where containment buildings NRC now concedes are too small and risk failure under severe accident conditions. The risk is so high that the agency is recommending that operators install "hardened vent" systems to save the structures from rupturing, although this would still result in radioactive steam releases during an emergency, albeit "smaller," "controlled" ones. Similarly, it was the retrofitted vents installed at Fukushima that failed to protect  the primary containment in the severe accident following the Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

The Washington Post has reported on this story.

Tuesday
Aug232011

Earthquake dangers at Virginia reactors were known since 1970

A 1975 Washington Post article reveals that the then North Anna owners, and ultimately, the NRC, knew that the reactors were built on known fault lines, but construction on two reactors was completed anyway.

Some excerpts from the article headlined: Vepco Fined $60,000 for A-Plant Fault, By Hal Willard. Washington Post, September 12, 1975 -The strongest penalties ever imposed on the nuclear power industry were levied yesterday against the Virginia Electric and Power Company for violations in connection with construction of its four-reactor plant over a geologic fault in Louisa County . . .

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board fined Vepco $60,000, the maximum allowed by law, and set up stringent conditions that the company must meet to maintain a nuclear license for its North Anna plant...

Vepco was convicted of making 12 “material false statements” to the NRC in reference to the geologic fault. In essence, they were that Vepco said there were no faults at the North Anna site and none were suspected. All parties, including Vepco, now agree the fault exists . . .

The geological conditions at the North Anna site were investigated by Vepco consultants in 1968 and 1969. They said they found no fault. An outside geologist found the fault in 1970 and Vepco’s consultants confirmed the fault in May, 1973.

Tuesday
Aug232011

Loss of offsite power at N. Anna caused automatic shutdown of reactors

Both reactors shut down but operating on backup diesel generators.