Beyond Nuclear press release - Mother Nature sends a warning

Beyond Nuclear today issued a press release that warned regulators and the White House not to ignore the warnings from Mother Nature and to act quickly to begin a nuclear phaseout. The press release began: A 5.9 magnitude earthquake that was felt up and down the US east coast was centered in Mineral, Virginia, home to the two-reactor North Anna nuclear power plant operated by Dominion Energy.  North Anna sits just 90 miles south of Washington, DC. The plant automatically shut down following a loss of offsite power, but electricity is still needed to cool the reactor core and fuel pools.

"Once again, Mother Nature is warning us that nuclear power is the most brittle of electrical power systems," said Paul Gunter, director of Reactor Oversight for Beyond Nuclear. "In times of national crisis or natural disaster, nuclear power becomes more of a liability than an asset," he said.

Read the rest of the press release here.

Earthquake sensors removed from North Anna in 1990s due to budget cuts

NRC's file photo of North Anna nuclear power plant in Mineral, VAThe Raw Story reports that, "According to the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory (VTSO) removed all seismographs from around the plant in the 1990s due to budget cuts." The story also reports that NRC (the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission) has determined the two reactors at North Anna nuclear power plant are the 7th most at risk from earthquakes amongst the 104 operating reactors in the U.S. Despite these risks, Dominion Nuclear plans to build a new third reactor at the site.

"Alert" declared at North Anna and "Unusual Events" at 12 more nuclear power plants due to earthquake

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a media release re: the Virginia earthquake, stating it is monitoring conditions at the North Anna nuclear power plant, located very close to the quake's epicenter in Mineral, VA. North Anna nuclear power plant has declared an "Alert," the second of four levels of increasing risk and severity.  The media release also states:

"Plants declaring Unusual Events, which indicate a potential decrease in plant safety, include Peach Bottom, Three Mile Island, Susquehanna and Limerick in Pennsylvania; Salem, Hope Creek and Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Surry in Virginia, Shearon Harris in North Carolina and D.C. Cook and Palisades in Michigan. All these plants continue to operate while plant personnel examine their sites."

The 12 plant sites comprise 19 atomic reactor units. Peach Bottom 2 & 3, Hope Creek, and Oyster Creek are General Electric Boiling Water Reactors of the Mark 1 design, essentially identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4, devastated by an earthquake and tsunami beginning on March 11th. Limerick is comprised of two GE BWR Mark 2 design reactors, where containment buildings NRC now concedes are too small and risk failure under severe accident conditions. The risk is so high that the agency is recommending that operators install "hardened vent" systems to save the structures from rupturing, although this would still result in radioactive steam releases during an emergency, albeit "smaller," "controlled" ones. Similarly, it was the retrofitted vents installed at Fukushima that failed to protect  the primary containment in the severe accident following the Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

The Washington Post has reported on this story.

Earthquake dangers at Virginia reactors were known since 1970

A 1975 Washington Post article reveals that the then North Anna owners, and ultimately, the NRC, knew that the reactors were built on known fault lines, but construction on two reactors was completed anyway.

Some excerpts from the article headlined: Vepco Fined $60,000 for A-Plant Fault, By Hal Willard. Washington Post, September 12, 1975 -The strongest penalties ever imposed on the nuclear power industry were levied yesterday against the Virginia Electric and Power Company for violations in connection with construction of its four-reactor plant over a geologic fault in Louisa County . . .

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board fined Vepco $60,000, the maximum allowed by law, and set up stringent conditions that the company must meet to maintain a nuclear license for its North Anna plant...

Vepco was convicted of making 12 “material false statements” to the NRC in reference to the geologic fault. In essence, they were that Vepco said there were no faults at the North Anna site and none were suspected. All parties, including Vepco, now agree the fault exists . . .

The geological conditions at the North Anna site were investigated by Vepco consultants in 1968 and 1969. They said they found no fault. An outside geologist found the fault in 1970 and Vepco’s consultants confirmed the fault in May, 1973.

Loss of offsite power at N. Anna caused automatic shutdown of reactors

Both reactors shut down but operating on backup diesel generators.

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

MSNBC reports: "Two nuclear reactors near the epicenter were taken offline as a precaution, officials said. No damage was reported at either."

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

NRC placed North Anna 7th in the top ten of most earthquake-prone reactors. But still Dominion wants to expand to a third reactor.

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

CNN has reported the first word from NRC (the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission). The North Anna nuclear power plant, with two reactors that had been operating at 100% power levels, is the only nuclear power plant in the Eastern U.S. reporting in, as it was very near the epicenter of the earthquake. The two reactors automatically "SCRAMMED" on loss of offsite power, and all emergency diesel generator emergency back up power systems are operating as designed, to continue to provide electricity to run cooling systems. No news about other nuclear power plants in the Eastern U.S., however.

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

Titus North of Citizen Power in Pennsylvania (who spoke alongside Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps as keynote speakers at an anti-Oyster Creek event in Toms River, New Jersey a few months ago) has reported: "The North Anna plant was built to withstand 5.9-6.1 earthquake. The epicenter was some 13 miles from the plant and was 5.9 in magnitude. NBC, quoting AP reports, says plant has been shut down and is being run off of emergency generators." Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates has shared that: "When North Anna was built, they discovered that an earthquake fault ran right under the plant.  The NRC let them build it anyway."

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago has issued a media release re: the North Anna earthquake. The release states:

[..."It would appear that Mother Nature does not intend to wait the 18 months suggested by three NRC Commissioners to 'study' whether or not to implement plans their Fukushima study team says should be implemented now," notes Dave Kraft, director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service. 

He was referring to the results of the special NRC 90-day Fukushima study team, which made recommendations for actions based on lessons-learned to date from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan:  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1118/ML111861807.pdf

The Report released July 12th engendered controversy when three NRC Commissioners recommended delay in implementing some of the findings, pending more study, despite the over 120 years of cumulative experience in the issues they were asked to investigate.

A preliminary report from CNN indicates that NRC now states that "North Anna experienced an automatic "SCRAM" (emergency shutdown) due to loss of offsite power....All emergency diesel generator power systems kicked in as needed," according to the initial reports.  This is the same issue that has undergone intense scrutiny among nuclear advocates and critics alike in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan...]

NEIS has also issued an updated media release.

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

The USGS report on the North Anna earthquake reports that it was epicentered just 5 miles from Mineral, VA, the location of the twin reactor North Anna nuclear power plant.

Update on August 23, 2011 by admin

CNN has just interviewed a Dominion Nuclear spokesman who has said there is "no apparent damage" to the North Anna nuclear power plant, and that both units have shut down automatically and are operating on diesel backup power after losing offsite power.