Nuclear Reactors on East Coast Brace for Hurricane Irene's Wrath

[defendandprotect]

Nuclear Reactors on East Coast Brace for Hurricane Irene's Wrath


NEW YORK -- More than a dozen nuclear reactors along the U.S. East Coast are being prepared for potential loss of power and damage from high winds and storm surges as Hurricane Irene bears down on the region.

An image provided by NOAA made by the GOES-east satellite shows Hurricane Irene as it nears the East coast Wednesday Aug. 25, 2011. The Category 3 storm with winds of 115 mph would be the strongest to strike the East Coast in seven years. (AP Photo/NOAA) Nuclear plants in Irene's path continued to operate as workers secured loose equipment, checked diesel fuel supplies for backup generators and stowed cots and food for workers who may be stranded during the storm.

At Dominion Resources Inc.'s Millstone nuclear station, which sits on a narrow peninsula in the Long Island Sound near Waterford, Connecticut, workers were examining flood barriers and submarine doors designed to keep reactors dry from a hurricane's storm surge.

"That's part of our storm preparations: ensuring those flood barriers are in place, ready to do their job," said Ken Holt, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion, in an interview yesterday.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/26/bloomberg1376-LQI56W0D9L3501-4BA854V24I1U8BQFI9QALVO06D.DTL




PS: Also some interesting comments on the article at Common Dreams --
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/26-2

Some of the plants involved are Indian Point -- 35 miles from Manhattan

Calvert Cliffs -- in Maryland

Hope Creek and Salem in Southern NJ

and Brown's Ferry nuclear plant which is actually in Northern Alabama - not Tennessee!!

[Electric Monk]

1. Link? Also, Wednesday was Aug 24th, not 25th. Today is Friday Aug 26th.

nt

[defendandprotect]

2. Point is the REACTORS ...

However, informationally, had difficulty locating the article at SFC --

originally picked it up at Common Dreams --

Don't know about the date -- came from a Bloomberg article 8/26/11 -- obvious error --


BUT we can all be assured that Global Warming is going to bring more and more

situations like this re the nuclear reactors --

We have something like two in every state --

and it takes approximately 6 months to properly shut down a reactor --

and I'm not sure if that includes appropriate disposal of the WASTE -- if there is

such a thing!!


Global Warming will be bringing more chaotic weather -- increased storms/hurricanes

and of increasing intensity -- droughts/floods -- cyclones, tornados --

Melting of the Glaciers will also bring more earthquakes as pressure on the tectonic

plates shift -- Earthquakes also generate more volcanic activity.


Global Warming is breathing down our necks -- and REACTORS are an urgent part of

decisions we have to make --

Could be the difference between "a whimper and a bang" -- !!

[Mnemosyne]

3. So many of these beasts already have issues. Wondering if any have damage from the quake

that is yet unnoticed? Some hurricane force winds may 'force' test the issue.

But I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me what a dumb ass I am to even dare to wonder and why it is hyperbole to ask it out loud.


Thanks for the thread, D&P...and for all you try to do here!

[defendandprotect]

7. There's some discussion about that at the ....

Common Dreams site -- this links you to the article --

then you can click onto the "comments" --

:)

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/26-2

[Feron]

4. Meh.

Waterford 3 near NOLA survived Katrina without any problems. It's designed to withstand sustained winds of 200 mph and tornadoes with higher gusts. It also has watertight doors that can stop 30 ft. of water and the important stuff is located in the reinforced section of the building.

I'd imagine that the other plants are similar in nature even if they aren't PWRs.

/lives about 35 miles away from a nuke plant. Damage to my home from things like trees worries me more than extraordinarily unlikely events.

[defendandprotect]

5. Chernobyl and Fukushima were "extraordinary unlikely events" ... that happened -- !!!

And I'm sure you remember 3 Mile Island -- !!

[defendandprotect]

6. Japan's Cesium Leak Equal to 168 '45 A-Bombs --

Japan's Cesium Leak Equal to 168 '45 A-Bombs
NISA compares contamination to Hiroshima blast

The amount of radioactive cesium ejected by the Fukushima reactor meltdowns is about 168 times higher than that emitted in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the government's nuclear watchdog said Friday.


The blast wave of "Little Boy," dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed most of the city and eventually killed as many as 140,000 people. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency provided the estimate at the request of a Diet panel but noted that making a simple comparison between an instantaneous bomb blast and a long-term accidental leak is problematic and could lead to "irrelevant" results.

The report said the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant has released 15,000 terabecquerels of cesium-137, which lingers for decades and can cause cancer, compared with the 89 terabecquerels released by the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

The report estimated each of the 16 isotopes released by the "Little Boy" bomb and 31 of those detected at the Fukushima plant. NISA has said the radiation released at Fukushima was about one-sixth of that released during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110827x3.html




Move along -- nothing to worry about with nuclear reactors -- !!!


:nuke:

[No Elephants]

8. Weapons of mass destruction?