Unacceptable radioactive waste risks taken at Millstone Unit 1

NRC file photo of Millstone nuclear power plant, taken on a calmer, sunnier day than now!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.

Multiple reactors shutdown due to Hurricane Sandy

NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft captured this infrared image of Hurricane Sandy, another weather front to the west and cold air coming down from Canada at 2:17 p.m. EDT Oct. 29. The hurricane center is the darkest purple area in the Atlantic just to the east of the New Jersey coast, reflecting Sandy's areas of heaviest rainfall. Image credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechAs 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 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 and one unit at Dominion's Millstone plant in Connecticut."

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 emergency diesel generators needed to fire up due to loss of offsite power, and Peach Bottom 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.

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

NRC's file photo of Oyster Creek, which began operations in 1969As 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.

First an "Unusual Event" and then an "Alert" declared at Oyster Creek due to Hurricane Sandy

Oyster Creek atomic reactorThe United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has reported that Exelon Nuclear declared an "Unusual Event" at the Oyster Creek atomic reactor in Lacey Township, New Jersey (photo, left) at 7 PM Eastern, when water levels in the Forked River "first reached a minimum high water level criteria" in the plant's cooling water intake structure, "due to a combination of a rising tide, wind direction, and storm surge." The very center of Hurricane Sandy made landfall not far from Oyster Creek.

The higher level "Alert" was declared at 8:45 PM due to river levels in the intake structure "exceeding certain high water level criteria."

The Oyster Creek atomic reactor is currently shutdown for refueling. However, this means that thermally hot high-level radioactive waste, recently discharged from the operating reactor core, is now stored in the irradiated fuel storage pool, increasing risks of the pool water boiling if the electrical grid goes down in the storm. NRC does not require the cooling water systems in high-level radioactive waste storage pools to be connected to emergency back-up diesel generators, or any other power source besides the primary electrical grid.

Oyster Creek is the oldest operating reactor in the U.S., an identical twin design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 -- only older. Its high-level radioactive waste storage pool contains significantly more irradiated nuclear fuel than any of Fukushima Daiichi's units.