Posted on 05/02/2009 10:53:50 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — The discovery of water flowing across the floor of a building at the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y., traced to a leak in a buried pipe, is stirring concern about the plant’s underground pipes and those of other aging reactors across the country.
A one-and-a-half-inch hole caused by corrosion allowed about 100,000 gallons of water to escape from the main system that keeps the reactor cool immediately after any shutdown, according to nuclear experts. The leak was discovered on Feb. 16, according to the plant’s owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of the Entergy Corporation.
Entergy and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission emphasized that the Indian Point reactor could still have been shut down safely with either of two other backup systems, although operators generally avoid using both.
They also stressed that the supply pipe was quickly repaired after the leak was found and that the water itself, which is cleaner than tap water, posed no environmental threat. Yet the leak’s discovery has prompted Entergy and the regulatory commission to begin studying how the chief system for cooling during shutdowns, so important that the Indian Point 2 has three pumps in place to do the same job, could be endangered by the failure of a single part.
More broadly, it has raised concerns about the monitoring of decades-old buried pipes at the nation’s nuclear plants, many of which are applying for renewal of their operating licenses. Indian Point 2, whose 40-year operating license expires in 2013, already faces harsh criticism from New York State and county officials who want it shut down.
This week Representative Edward J. Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads a House subcommittee on energy and the environment, said the leak raised serious questions about Entergy’s and the regulatory commission’s oversight...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Complete data on the 104 nuclear reactors in the US is at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/nuc_reactors/reactsum.html
Reactor status list:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/nuc_reactors/operational.xls Lots of reactors from the sixties.
Meanwhile, across the pond, we have France: 40 years of nuke plants--hundreds of them. 86.5% of electricity from nukes. Not a single leak of radiation, injury or fatality. We are such chumps putting up these stupid wind turbines which take about 100 years to pay for themselves. we have more nuclear material than anyone, and we wont use it. Chumps.
It’s just to raise the fear some more, you know making way for more control and regulation.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
CRISIS!!!!!
Thanks for the links.
Yep, Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda teamed up in that movie to scare us witless.
I still remember that movie was released, coincidentally, around the time of the Three Mile Island incident. I remember that as we exited the theater, anti-nuclear activists were outside the theater, handing out leaflets and information about anti-nuke rallies and protests.
A common slab leak, this is one case where if I were a reporter I would go straight to the plumber that did the routine repair and ask him for his opinion.
And Obama is against nuclear unless we can find the perfect way to handle nuclear waste. Until then, he wants clean green energy such as windmill and “biofuels” and God knows what else.
I’ve heard part of our problems with nuclear is that the new nuclear technology is better in many ways. Since we haven’t been allowed to build any nuclear plants in America in many years, all of them are using the older technology.
We’re all rushing to get us all new light bulbs, but it’s verboten to build a new nuclear power plant. Go figure.
Liberals are against so many things that can help our energy problems.
They are against nuclear.
They are against oil drilling.
They are against more coal mining
They are against more hydro electric or dams
They are against any of the clean coal technology, or experimenting with any of that, because coal is “bad”
I hope your French safety record carries over to this Indian Point 2 nuclear plant in Buchanan, N.Y. My son is reporting to West Point on June 29th and wants to go into Special Ops. It would be a disadvantage if he glowed in the dark.
Thorium reactors (and references therein).
Proposed by Carl Rubbia (Nobel laureate in Physics, former director of CERN).
Cheers!
When the USS Triton made the 84 day trip around the world in 1960, I spent most of my time just 30 feet away from the reactor. I worn a film badge exchanged every month. During the two months we were totally under water, our film badges did not register anything. We assumed our instrument was broken, until we returned. It seems all the radiation we were exposed to was from the sun not our reactor. During our initial submerged portion of the trip, we had every radiation detector going off after about five days. Could not find the supposed leak and accidentially one tech waved a detector across a shipmate’s arm and it pegged the meter. It seems we had three watches and two instrument meters with lumuis dials on them.
of course the radial left woulld not believe this fact.
Oh puh-leeze!! Your son has more of a chance of cutting his throat and bleeding to death shaving this morning than he does from being injured in any way by that nuclear plant.
That plant has been there for decades with no accidents.
Congrats on being a member of the Triton’s crew for that journey. The stories of the Nautilus at the Pole, Triton’s voyage, and the novel “Cold Is The Sea” by your old Captain made me want to become a Navy Nuc.
I served on the USS Scamp in the 80’s and we ran at 100% reactor power everywhere we went and my total exposure from 4 years on that boat was less than one dental X-ray.
The deepest irony about Silkwood was that, here she was supposedly exposing big bad Kerr McGee for falsifying safety records of fuel rods, but never making the connection that she and her hippie-druggie nuclear technician friends were assembling those faulty rods while high on marijuana and Quaaludes and who knows what else.
Similar to my husband’s conversation with an older woman about the growing ice thickness in the Arctic. He told her there was a website that monitored the ice thickness by satellite and could be checked by date, with pictures. Her reply was :”I don’t agree with you.” He pointed out that this was not a matter of opinion, but of fact. She was not moved.
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