Posted on 03/08/2016 5:29:21 AM PST by JoeProBono
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., - A scuba diver in Florida is suing a utility company after he was sucked into a quarter-mile-long pipe that took him inside a nuclear power plant.
Christopher Le Cun said he was scuba diving off the coast of Hutchinson Island with friend Robert Blake last summer when the pair went down to investigate three large shadows underneath a yellow buoy.
"I swam right up to this big structure and it looks like a building underwater. I felt a little bit of current. All of a sudden it got a little quicker and I said, 'this ain't right, this ain't right,'" Le Cun told WPTV.
Blake said Le Cun got "sucked in like a wet noodle."
Blake returned to the surface to get help from the duo's friends and family on a boat, while Le Cun was sucked down one of three 16-foot-wide intake pipes.
The diver said he was in the tube for about five minutes before he saw the light of the surface he would soon reach.
"All of a sudden it looks like a match, out in the distance, just the littlest bit of what you've ever seen. When it gets a little bigger, then a little bigger. Then all of a sudden just, poof, daylight. Fish everywhere, crystal-clear water the sun is shining and I'm like, 'is this heaven?'" Le Cun said.
Le Cun said he shouted for help and was assisted by a confused employee who asked how he got into the plant.
Blake and Le Cun said they did not see any warnings anywhere in the area, but an FPL spokesman said there is writing on the buoy reading, "stay back 100 feet."
Le Cun is now suing plant operator Florida Power and Light, alleging negligence for inadequate safety precautions.
"Nothing is more important safety at our St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plants, which is a reason that we have a protective over the intake piping. The diver intentionally swam into one of the intake pipes after bypassing a piece of equipment to minimize the entry of objects," FPL said in a statement.
Le Cun is not the first scuba diver to take a wild ride through the plant's intake pipes -- William Lamm had a similar experience in June 1989.
"I thought I was dead," the then-45-year-old told UPI in a 1989 interview. "It was darker than any dark I have ever seen. I tumbled and bounced all over the sides of the pipe."
So let’s recap for the viewers at home.
1) These guys took their surface boat to an area visibly near this plant.
2) They dropped anchor visibly near the intake/exhaust of the power plant.
3) As divers they saw the yellow buoy markers and apparently ignored them.
4) Admitted that they dove under water intentionally near a large object in close proximity to what they knew was the power plant.
5) Is now suing the local rate payers for their willful disregard and negligence.
Sounds about right. By the way, how much did it cost to fish these guys out and repair any damage? How much is it costing rate payers to fight this absurd action? Sounds like the ratepayers ought to go after these nuts.
I cannot believe Robert Black got away with murder when OJ didn’t
I can only guess his wife was known around the area and intensely disliked - and from the way she is described, it is not hard to imagine that.
If there was a grate he would have been pinned to it by the suction and he would have probably drowned when his air ran out.
Put a cage on the lagoon side, with some of it above the water, and monitor it for invaders. Anyone comes in gets the same treatment the USAF used to give college students in Grand Forks who got too close to the fence around a missile silo—or worse.
I think the pipe is more of an inlet into a pool, and the pumps are actually from that pool to the power plant.
pumping from that pool to the inside of the plant lowers the pool level, which created more inflow through the pipes
If this was some type of intake wouldn’t he have had to got through a pump? Why wasn’t he turned to hamburger?
...Only if he found a shining trapezohedron down there.
He’s very lucky not to have been attacked by sharks. Good friend of mine (fisherman)used to fish right off that beach for shark as the warm water from the plant attracted FISH!
Ok. His girlfriend gets the money.
“As he banged the podium with his third fist, the victim’s dorsal fin bristled...”
Sounds like a possible security breach!
I agree. I didn’t feel like going into that much detail. There are only 2 ways the story is true. As you say the pipe feeds an inlet basin. The basin needs to be either below the mean sea level (which would require valving to prevent overflow) or the tide was coming in. I don’t see an inlet structure such as this with valving not having a trash grate ( if trash lodges in the valve seat the valve will leak), and I don’t see it as a tidal inlet (Too many inconsistencies for a nuke plant). I call BS.
How do they deal with all the fish that get sucked in?
please share!
I hope its as bad as my smartass cousin got when he mouthed off to the border agents crossing into Canada
He got the full strip search and anal probe
There’s an intermediate pool if you look at the photo. The plant probably has a moving screen system that moves fish away from the intake.
Some divers are WAY STUPID.
I question the grate made to minimize the entry of foreign objects. A diver with a tank and BC is bigger than ‘most’ fish. I NEVER tried to get into anywhere that required any contact with my tank or having to finagle to get past an obstruction.
I wonder if any radical muslems are reading this thread? Expect legislation to fix our nations power plant problem before Obammy gets out of office, (with lots more of our money as the solution.)
Sorry, this is not Thread Hijacking Day on FR.
Given this is Florida and nuc plants are known for warm water, he's lucky he didn't run into this.
My guess is that diving offers some the feeling of autonomy and authorization for virtually anything. They’re ‘trained’ and ‘experienced’ and whatever might present itself as interesting isn’t off limits.
All I know is that I’d not normally expect some large structure I see off the coast as something that begged me to inspect. Things like this to me, particularly when currenting-out or currenting-in should be some kind of a clue....
We’ll just have to wait and see what that barrier entailed, but if this diver lived, he should chalk it up and be thankful his curiosity didn’t get him killed is my opinion.
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