Conn. has a nuke plant event

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?glide=NC-20090715-22383-USA&cat=dis&lang=eng


Area: Waterford

The Millstone Unit 2 reactor will remain shut down as operators fix a tiny leak located in part of the system that cools the reactor. Originally, the reactor at the Millstone Power Station had been shut down since July 3 following an electrical storm that caused power fluctuations from the region's electrical grid and an automatic trip, or shutdown. Then, on Monday, as operators were restarting the plant, they discovered a “very small” leak in a reactor coolant pump, Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an e-mail. Late in the afternoon Tuesday, the leak was still dripping and is slightly radioactive, but drains into a water collection area at the base of the building where it is captured, Sheehan wrote. The reactor coolant system transfers heat produced in the reactor core to the steam generators. There, heat is produced for the turbine-generator, which in turn produces electricity. By early evening, Dominion had pinpointed the problem. ”We have identified the location of the leak,” said Dominion spokesman Rich Zuercher in an e-mail. “It is on piping that provides cooling to a reactor coolant pump seal. We are preparing to make the repair. We also performed an 'extent-of-condition' examination on other reactor coolant pump seal cooling piping and are taking appropriate actions to prevent the potential for a similar issue to develop.” While the reactor is idled, plant operators will fix the pipe. For competitive reasons, the company does not disclose how long the shutdown will last or when the reactor will come back online. A pressurizer safety valve also failed to close properly and may have to be fixed, said Sheehan and Zuercher. There was no danger from the leak to employees or the public, Sheehan and Zuercher said. The Unit 3 reactor continues to function properly, they said.)
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just so you know

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. People are NEVER in danger from radioactive leaks, haven't you noticed? Never.

Well, ok, maybe three Mile Island and that Russian place.
but other than that, the public need never be concerned about reactor leaks.
No matter where the water ends up.
Honest, you can trust them. Why would they lie?

[MercutioATC]

3. ...especially when they feel the need to keep saying that the leak was "VERY small"...

"Tiny", even :)

[TheMadMonk]

4. Individual coal fired power plants release more radiation daily...

...into the environment than escapes (all the way into a containment pit built for this very purpose) in these "events".

Concrete is often more radioactive than a lot of nuclear waste which (by regulation) must be given special handling. Granite is more radioactive still. So be careful not to sit on your benchtops without your lead lined knickers.


More people die every single week as a result of coal plant emissions than the Chernobyl disaster has killed or will ever kill. Ditto for smoke stack emmissions from ships. Ditto for trucks on the road.


Plants like the Chernobyl one continue to opperate today because the noise from idiotic anti-nuke activists makes it essentially impossible to replace them with modern reactors, designed and built in such a way that runaway events like Chernobyl CAN NOT HAPPEN. Are these people really that stupid, or do they actually want a few more "events" to take place just make their point and see their goal of NO NUKES reaslised?

Indeed, given their rhetoric AND their behaviour to date, the only logical conclusion that a rational person can reach is that the leaders of the anti-nuke movement are so bloody mindedly determined to have their way, that they deliberately stand in the way of improving the technology, even to the extent of wanting (and sometimes engineer) more adverse events, simply to make their neo-luddite point.


Chernobly is as much the fault of the West as the actual idiot who shut down what few safety systems existed there and by his further actions caused the reactor core to go into meltdown. Because of technology embargos, Soviet nuclear technology (particularly civilian) lagged decades behind the West. FFS, they had the bloody bomb, what possible advantage did the West gain from keeping "secrets" that could only have served to make Soviet power plants safer?


The knowledge exists right now to develop nuclear power plants safe enough, small enough and idiot (hell penny pinching bureaucrat) proof enough to put in your basement AND to destroy every gram of unwanted nuclear material on this planet, but between anti-nuke idiots determined to put wishful thinking ahead of reality and warmongers who care only for the military potential of that technology (and keeping it "secret") it's not likely to happen any time soon.


The genie is out of the bottle. It has been out for seventy years now. The bell can not be unrung. The only rational path is forwards, towards safer technology. And perhaps one day towards technology which renders nuclear fisson as obsolete as button up boots.

[SidDithers]

2. 'There was no danger from the leak to employees or the public'...

Multiple layers of safety systems working properly, once again.

Sid

[ProdigalJunkMail]

5. i love how ensho takes the time to inform us so frequently

on the successful implementation and execution of safety features at various nuclear plants around the country!


sP