Posted on 08/23/2011 12:42:13 PM PDT by matt04
A nuclear power plant located in Louisa County, the epicenter of the earthquake in Virginia, has shut down.
The North Anna Power Station, operated by Dominion Power, has two reactors. The plant declared an "unusual event" in the wake of the 5.9 magnitude quake, which is the lowest stage on the plant's emergency scale.
As a result, the plant has been shut down.
The AP reports the plant is being run off of four emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical safety equipment.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Roger Hannah says the agency was not immediately aware of any damage at nuclear power plants in the southeast.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcwashington.com ...
Over-reaction?
Time will tell.
sounds soooooo familiar....
Obama is looking for ‘just the right event’ — not this time I guess.
Those generators are going to cause global warming. We're doomed.
Almost certainly sensible rules for what to do in an emergency. When you first feel the shake you don't know how big the earthquake is so you drop the control rods and shut down the reactor. Then you see how bad it was and whether anything was damaged. If everything is OK then you restart the reactor.
I certainly hope the reactor was built to withstand a much stronger magnitude quake than a 5.9
####
In our pussified, over-regulated, fearful, bureaucratic make-work society, need you ask?
Undoubtedly a gross, wholly unnecessary overreaction.
As a lifelong Californian, it sounds like it to me, though a 5.9 is a decent shaker -- enough to put the fear of God in you! It must have scared the willies out of folks who've never experienced a quake before.
But, I would venture to say, hardly enough to cause the shut-down of a power plant, even -- or especially -- a nuclear one. Around here, they're built to withstand quite a lot more than that.
Just my two cents.
Standard safety precaution, I would assume. I'm guessing the plant's seismic sensors aren't aware of the severity of the problem, they just are programmed to shut down the reactor if they sense anything.
Just like the smoke detectors in my house go off every time I try to microwave popcorn. An overreaction? Yes, but standard safety procedure for said smoke detector. ;-)
IT FUNCTIONED JUST LIKE IT WAS DESIGNED TO DO!
I pray that it does the trick for those SOBs in Washington and especially at Cape Cod, but I'd rather see a rain of fire and brimstone!
FUBO GTFO !
While it’s in shutdown mode, Obama will have an opportunity to keep it locked down and eventually closed.
Hi, we’re from the EPA and we’re here to screw you.
Well, except that, from the sounds of it, the plant shut-down was a human decision, not as a result of computer.
I liked Quisp better.
No just normal caution. Controlled shut downs at not a problem. Moat likely SOP.
“As a lifelong Californian, it sounds like it to me, though a 5.9 is a decent shaker — enough to put the fear of God in you! It must have scared the willies out of folks who’ve never experienced a quake before.”
Thinking the same thing here. Lifelong Californian also.
I thought when I read this that with the recent awareness of the constant (seemingly) barrage of news about the nuclear in Japan after that quake the powers to be might be a inclined to overreact if nothing else for PR.
Perhaps it’s time to clean that keyboard? LOL
Of course they are.
Part of withstanding the quake is scramming the pile before something gets broken. They'll check the integrity of the reactors, turbine hall, and the dam at Lake Anna ... then start it up again. No worries.
The North Anna Generating Station is 15 miles from the epicenter.
If I could type it would not be as much fun.
Coal power is so dirty and nuclear power is so risky that DC should run only on solar power, wind power and burning bullsh*t. I hear at least one of these is in ample supply.
I think, based on Maxine Water’s recent rantings, there are two of those things in abundant supply - BS and wind.
Could have been automatic.
Exelon Corp. (EXC) said Tuesday that four of its nuclear-power plants have declared "unusual events" following an earthquake in northern Virginia.
Exelon's Limerick plant near Philadelphia, Oyster Creek plant near Toms River, N.J., Peach Bottom plant near Lancaster, Pa., and Three Mile Island Unit 1 plant near Harrisburg, Pa., declared unusual events in the wake of a 5.9-magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., the company said.
LOL
I want everything that happens there to be 100% normal.
Actually it is not sensible. The one thing that is designed for an earthquake is a nuclear reactor. Now you have to recover from an earthquake without any power.
And the one thing required to keep a nuclear plant safe is electric power. Now you are dependent upon the grid.
It is actually dumb, dumb, dumb. But folks don't think things through. Before the Tresher accident the first thing a sub did with flooding was scram the reactor. Then the ship sank because of lack of propulsion. The rules changed.
I used to love Quake. My brother preferred Quisp.
Ahh, waxing nostalgic for those fights in the cereal aisle.
Hence the redundant onsite emergency diesel generators. The article stated the plant was running on four of them after the reactor was scrammed.
Are they GE boiling water reactors?
Unusual event is the lowest rung on the problem ladder. So they are not major problems. But we have 4 nuclear plants with unusual events along with the shutdown to backup power at North Anna in Virgina. The situation in Virgina is more serious and we have a Hurricane headed toward the area. Just another normal week on planet ape.
I think it should be converted to coal fired.
Post 38 was a response to your post. Sorry about that.
The North Anna reactors are of the Westinghouse Pressurized Water design and went on line in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Since then the reactors have generated approximately 1,200 metric tons of nuclear spent fuel containing about 228,000 curies of highly radioactive materials—among the largest concentrations of radioactivity in the United States.
Most likely shutdown on loss of offsite power than due to damage from the earthquake. Most plants will have to declare a Notification of Unusual Event (NUE) for just having felt the earthquake - gets the reviews and evaluations going. At some level, plants will shutdown automatically for a seismic even - levels depend on what the plant is designed for.
I’ll bet the guy who was sitting in that chair isn’t laughing now!
An Alert at North Anna Power Station; Reactors Shut Down Safely, No Damage Reported
RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Virginia Power declared an Alert at the North Anna Power Station in Mineral, Va., following an earthquake in Central Virginia. The reactors have been shut down safely and no major damage has been reported.
The station declared an Alert, the next to the lowest of the four emergency classifications of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Both reactors have been shut down. The emergency diesel generators started as off-site power from the electric grid was lost. No release of radioactive material has occurred beyond those minor releases associated with normal station operations.
The earthquake was felt at the company's other Virginia nuclear power station, Surry Power Station in southeast Virginia, but not as strongly. Both units at Surry continue to operate safely.
The earthquake also caused the company's newest power station, Bear Garden in Buckingham County, to shut down automatically.
U.S. nuclear power stations, including Dominion's four stations, were built to seismic standards for their regions.
Dominion (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation's largest producers of energy. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.
SOURCE Dominion
2 nuclear reactors taken offline after Va. quake
Federal officials say two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., were automatically taken off line by safety systems around the time of the earthquake.
The Dominion-operated power plant is being run off three emergency diesel generators, which are supplying power for critical safety equipment. The NRC and Dominion are sending people to inspect the plant.
A fourth diesel generator failed, but it wasn't considered an emergency because the other generators are working, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
...Hannah said he knew of no other shut reactor but that unusual events were reported at a dozen other plant sites.
Suppose that they had not used the word major -- If it were later determined that a coffee cup had fallen off someone's desk and cracked, the anti-nuke folks, along with the media, would be screaming COVER-UP!!! for Dominion's initially having failed to disclose the "damage".
Appears that 1 of the 4 backup generators has failed. Do not know if that was due to earthquake damage or not. This quake was right at the earthquake rating level for this plant, from what I can tell. So there will be some damage. That is guaranteed.
We had a few things fall over or down or “Off” here in Loudon County south of Dulles airport. I thought it was a jet not making it to the runway!
Friends live in Mineral, on Lake Anna near the power plant, and have not reached them yet...summer home so maybe not there today.
Excellent posts with the updated information. No power from the grid and 1 of 4 back-up generators has failed.
Presumably they were running 4 generators because they needed 4 generators, and not just for the hell of it. Now they have 3.
Wonder what broke that seems like it was not major, and whether it will seem more important later on.
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