= new reply since forum marked as read
...only its older.
[link:http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2012/12-042.i.pdf|NRC CONTINUES TO MONITOR HURRICANE SANDY;
ALERT DECLARED AT OYSTER CREEK PLANT;
NO PLANTS SHUT DOWN DUE TO THE STORM]
seem less catastrophic by comparison? 
We know from experience they're not admitting what is probably a rapidly changing and dangerous situtation there .. Gundersen said that it's worse when the plant is offline, don't remember why..
...at plants like Oyster Creek they're more vulnerable because they have no way to keep the nuclear fuel cool in the reactor if the plant main power goes off and/or the diesel backup generators fail. They have about 2 hours to correct the problem which might not be possible in a hurricane.
In this case, the plant's fuel had been taken out earlier (but it's still really, really hot), and was placed it into the spent fuel cooling ponds. These ponds are extremely vulnerable because of the flooding (particularly when it's sea water). There is no artificial way to cool the outdoor ponds (The plant gets its cooling water from Barnegat Bay, a brackish estuary that empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Barnegat Inlet). Although I believe Oyster Creek's cooling ponds are inside the building:
Many of these old plants have huge spent fuel holding ponds and many have as much as 30x the amount of spent fuel in them as Fukushima has, since they've been storing spent nuclear fuel there since they opened. In Oyster Creek's case, that would be 1969. This of course makes them particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and tornadoes. Like this one was last year during the 100+ tornadoes that struck in Alabama -- just 25 miles away from these pools at Browns-Ferry in Huntsville:
Deadly hurricanes and nuclear plants... 
"Water level is rising in the intake structure due to a combination of a rising tide, wind direction and storm surge," the NRC said. "It is anticipated water levels will begin to abate within the next several hours." Exelon Corporation, the owner of the plants, said in a statement that there was "no threat to the public health or safety" from the situation. The plant also lost power, which is critical to keep spent fuel rods from overheating, but "the station's two backup diesel generators activated immediately," and it has two weeks of diesel fuel on site, Exelon said."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/nuclear-plants-sandys-path-brace-storm/story?id=17590194#.UI9btYVc6xp
Sorry to be a buzzkill. 
LOL 
ps But I am a far better birdy that that bad bird who always swoops down and attempts to birdpoop on anyone who disagrees with a screechingly usually right wing associated pro-nuclear power stance
* The plant was leaking tritium at around the same timeframe that it's 20-year extension application was approved by the NRC.
* The NRC didn't comply with the Coastal Zone Management Act when they failed to obtain ''positive consistency determination'' from the state environmental agency, NJDEP.
* The NRC refused a petition from the NJDEP to take ''terrorism vulnerability'' in to account in considering re-licensing.
- I'm relatively certain that at the time the NRC extended Oyster Creek's license for another 20 years back in 2009, they all said: "What's the worst that could happen, eh?"
- Which is still too far away to me. It's the oldest nuclear reactor running (1969) in the US. And it operates a single Mark I boiler-reactor, just like the ones still spewing radiation all over the planet in Fukushima. Leaving it to operate that long I think is really pushing it.
It's not whistleblowers we need so much, not with the all the facts out there for everyone to see. Oyster Creek is a case-in-point, literally a poster child of the dangerous leaking nuclear plant breaking the rules and sometimes the laws -- examples of which can be found all over the world. And when considering this list of aged boiler reactors (26 of which are exactly like the ones at Fukushima) are located right here in the good ole USA-'Murica. So our chances for replicating this insanity are outstanding!
And these old rickety pot boilers are around the same age (40+ years or more). Some have recently been given 20-year licensing extensions. ''What could be worse'', you ask?
How bout: The NRC must decide shortly whether to consider 80-year extensions. Because they're either going to have to continue granting extensions for these aging cracking-concrete behemoths, or by 2020 most of them will be coming offline. That is if they haven't already destroyed themselves (and some of us), before then.
[center]Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead
-- "Salt of the Earth," The Rolling Stones[/center]
