Exelon considers shutting Oyster Creek reactor early; then retracts

Old nukes are an increasingly risky business venture. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan is having economic fallout here in the United States. Take Oyster Creek in Toms River, New Jersey for example.

Bloomberg Business Week is reporting that Chicago-based nuclear giant Exelon Corporation is considering permanently closing its Oyster Creek nuclear power station before the current 2019 decommissioning date as agreed with the State of New Jersey. Oyster Creek is the first GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor, identical to the destroyed units at  Fukushima Dai-Ichi, to operate in the world. It went critical in October 1969 and started commercial operation in December 1969. 

The mounting capital cost for reactor safety system modifications arising from the Fukushima disaster coupled with degraded reactor conditions is pushing the nation's oldest nuclear power station closer to closure.  The financial community is sending warnings to nuclear corporations that operating  a decrepit reactor is increasing risky venture and will damage credit ratings.

Exelon's announcement that Oyster Creek is teetering on closure sounds like the company's business sense has finally kicked in.

Oyster Creek recently reported that is has discovered degraded conditions found in reactor core internals with cracking in vital reactor safety equipment, the control rod drive mechanisms.  

But no sooner than the envrionmental community voiced its concerns over Oyster Creek's cracks and urged closure, Oyster Creek's public affairs office issued its statement retracting its corporate headquarter's announcement in Bloomberg Business Week that the plant might close early.

Given its vulnerable Fukushima design, degraded plant conditions and the havoc that Hurricane Sandy  has wrought in the emergency planning zone, Oyster Creek should not be allowed to restart, period.

Hurricane “Sandy” sends another warning on unreliable nuclear power in a climate changing world

Hurricane Sandy held more lessons and sent a clear warning to humankind on the consequences of climate change and nuclear power in a post-Fukushima world.  Climate change was largely responsible for making Sandy one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history. The “Frankenstorm” swamped much of the Eastern Seaboard in storm surge and flood water with devastating results for New Jersey and New York. And it reiterated the dire need for prompt action to place the interests of the public’s health and safety ahead of those of an inherently dangerous and polluting nuclear power industry. 

The storm caused the emergency shutdown of three nuclear power stations because of electricity failures and the powering down of several more, once again demonstrating that in time of natural catastrophe and national emergency, nuclear power is unreliable and more a dangerous liability than an asset. 

Indian Point Unit 3 (Buchannan, NY), Nine Mile Point Unit 1 (Scriba, NY) and Salem Unit 1 (Artificial Island, NJ) were forced into shutdown and cooling mode due to electrical grid disturbance and high water. The Oyster Creek nuclear power station (Toms River, NJ), already shut down on October 22 for refueling and routine maintenance, went on “ALERT” when storm surge and flooding threatened to overwhelm cooling water pumps to the more than 700 metric tons of nuclear waste in its rooftop storage pond.

Nine Mile Point 1 and Oyster Creek are GE BWR Mark Is, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

The unprecedented size of this super-storm and its flooding impact has more broadly underscored the environmental threat from the entire nuclear fuel chain beginning with uranium mining to the still unresolved nuclear waste issue.  The radioactive contamination of water resources due to run-off from uranium mine tailings is a particular concern given current industry efforts to repeal the state of Virginia’s ban on uranium mining. The City of Virginia Beach detailed the threat to its drinking water supply from potential flooding of the proposed Cole’s Hill uranium mine in Pittsylvania County, VA in an environmental impact statement published in February 2011. One can only imagine the long term contamination as a consequence of adding radioactivity to the already toxic floodwaters now inundating communities in New Jersey and New York.

Oyster Creek may have to use fire suppression system to cool high-level radioactive waste storage pool

As reported by Reuters, Exelon Nuclear's Oyster Creek atomic reactor on the NJ shore (photo, left) may need to use its in-house fire suppression system's emergency water supply in order to cool its high-level radioactive waste storage pool, after water levels in the Forked River and Barnegat Bay rose nearly 7.5 feet above normal due to Hurricane Sandy. As reported by Reuters, 'the nation's oldest facility declared a rare "alert" after the record storm surge pushed flood waters high enough to endanger a key cooling system.'

Water levels were apparently high enough to "submerge the service water pump motor that is used to cool the water in the spent fuel pool, potentially forcing it to use emergency water supplies from the in-house fire suppression system to keep the rods from overheating," the article reports. NRC informed Reuters that "the company had moved a portable pump to the water intake structure as a precaution, but has not needed to use it."

Oyster Creek issued a rare "Alert," eliciting comment from a high-level Obama administration official running the federal government's response to Hurricane Sandy:

"'Right now there's no imminent threat of releases. There's no protective actions around the plant,' Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said on the Today Show.

'Some of these reporting requirements are due though to the severity of the storms. That they have to make these notifications based upon conditions, that does not mean that they are in an imminent threat at the plant,' Fugate said."

But even if Fugate is speaking truth, the nuclear establishment's past lies can lead to public distrust. Rosalie Bertell's book No Immediate Danger? challenged the U.S. nuclear establishment's flip use of such deceptive phraseology in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island meltdown of 1979. Such bad memories were revived by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano's use of the phrase "no immediate health risk" in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

Reuters reports that the high-level radioactive waste in Oyster Creek's pool could cause the water to boil in about 25 hours without additional coolant; "in an extreme scenario the rods could overheat, risking the eventual release of radiation."

As pointed out by Gregg Levine at Capitoilette, "If hoses desperately pouring water on endangered spent fuel pools remind you of Fukushima, it should. Oyster Creek is the same model of GE boiling water reactor that failed so catastrophically in Japan."

Ironically enough, during Oyster Creek's troubles -- which included loss of offsite power and the need to fire up two emergency diesel generators on site to provide electricity -- by 3:20 AM Tuesday, October 30th, 36 of 43 of Oyster Creek's emergency warning sirens were dysfunctional, according to an NRC "event notification." Thus, when needed most, emergency sirens often don't work, as they are grid connected, and not backed up, as by solar panels.

Multiple reactors shutdown due to Hurricane Sandy

As reported by Reuters:

"On Tuesday morning, the NRC said that Entergy Corp's Indian Point 3 automatically tripped offline at about 10:41 p.m. last night due to fluctuations in the power grid caused by the storm, while Public Service Enterprise Group Inc's Salem Unit 1 was manually shut down at 1:10 a.m. due to a loss of 'condenser circulators' due to the storm surge and debris...

Among other units, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's 630-MW Nine Mile Point 1 [a GE Mark I BWR, identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4] nuclear power reactor in upstate New York did shut due to a problem putting power onto the grid, although it was not clear whether the trouble was related to the storm.

In addition, Sandy caused power reductions at both units at Exelon's Limerick nuclear plant in Pennsylvania [Mark IIs, similar in design to Mark Is] and one unit at Dominion's Millstone plant in Connecticut [another Mark I]."

NRC, in a press release dated Monday, Oct. 29th, had "bragged on" the fact that "As of 9 p.m. EDT Monday, no plants had to shut down as a result of the storm." Capitoilette pointed out the irony that "If only regulators had held on to that release just one more minute," for Nine Mile Point Unit 1 had to automatically shutdown at 9 PM due to a light pole in the electrical switchyard falling on an electrical componet, causing a grid disturbance, and preventing the plant's output from being trasmitted to the grid.

NRC has posted "event notifications" about the Nine Mile Point Unit 1 SCRAM, the Indian Point Unit 3 shutdown, and the Salem Unit 1 trip. In addition, Nine Mile Point Unit 2's [a Mark II] emergency diesel generators needed to fire up due to loss of offsite power, and Peach Bottom [two Mark Is] lost nearly one-third of its emergency alert sirens, likely due to "collapse" of the electrical grid in the surrounding areas due to Hurricane Sandy.

NRC issued a press release at 10 AM Eastern on Tuesday, Oct. 30th recapping several reactors' status.

Unacceptable radioactive waste risks taken at Millstone Unit 1

The Millstone Unit 1 atomic reactor was permanently shutdown in the mid to late 1990s. Despite this, Dominion Nuclear has kept the high-level radioactive waste storage pool full, instead of moving the wastes into dry cask storage. Why? In order to defer the costs of dry cask storage as far into the future as possible.

But this means that the potentially catastrophic pool storage risks -- such as a high-level radioactive waste fire, due to pool boil or drain down, outside of any radiological containment structure -- persist, needlessly, other than to pad Dominion's profit margin. These risks are borne by downwind and downstream regional residents, however.

Obviously, all the irradiated nuclear fuel in Millstone 1's pool is more than five years cooled and decayed. It can, and should, be moved into dry cask storage. However, current dry cask storage is poorly designed and fabricated, and is not even built to withstand real world accidents or potential terrorist attacks. A united environmental movement has long called for hardened on-site storage, a significant safety and security upgrade on current dry cask storage requirements. But Dominion isn't even willing to transfer Millstone 1's irradiated nuclear fuel into inadequate, status quo dry cask storage.

Millstone nuclear power plant (photo, above left) was impacted by Hurricane Sandy. No surprise there, as it's located on Long Island Sound's north shore, in eastern Connecticut. One of Millstone's two still operating reactors was forced to power down from 100% power to 75% power yesterday, in response to the storm.

Millstone Units 1 (shutdown permanently), 2 and 3 (both still operating) are G.E. Mark Is, just like Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, as well as Oyster Creek in NJ, perhaps the single hardest hit nuclear plant by Hurricane Sandy.