Mysterious fire causes "unusual event" at Byron Unit 2 in Illinois

NRC file photo of Byron nuclear plant; one of its cooling towers is currently not releasing steam, but its turbine hall is -- steam containing radioactive tritiumAs reported by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) media release, Exelon Nuclear's Byron Unit 2 atomic reactor near Rockford, IL, primary electrical grid power was lost and safety and cooling systems had to run from emergency backup diesel generators when smoke was seen coming from a switchyard transformer. However, when the plant's fire brigade responded, they could not find the fire. The NRC activated its incident response center in Region III headquarters in Lisle, IL to monitor the situation.

As revealed by Exelon's "Event Report," offsite firefighters were called in, Unit 1 is still at full power, and Unit 2's cool down "steam [is] leaving via atmospheric relief valves."

An initial AP report on the incident stated: "The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public...[NRC] officials also said the release of tritium was expected...[NRC spokeswoman Viktoria] Mitlyng said officials can't yet calculate how much tritium is being released. They know the amounts are small because monitors around the plant aren't showing increased levels of radiation, she said...Tritium molecules are so microscopic that small amounts are able to pass from radioactive steam that originates in the reactor through tubing and into the water used to cool turbines and other equipment outside the reactor, Mitlyng said. The steam that was being released was coming from the turbine side...Tritium is relatively short-lived and penetrates the body weakly through the air compared to other radioactive contaminants."

But the linear no threshold theory, endorsed by the U.S. National Academies of Science for decades, holds that any exposure to radioactvity, no matter how small, still carries a health risk, and such risks are cumulative over a lifetime. It would be more honest for NRC officials to states that the tritium releases from Byron are "acceptably risky," in their judgment, but not "safe." After all, tritium is a potent radionuclide, a clinincally proven cause of cancer, mutations, and birth defects, and if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin, can integrate anywhere in the human body, right down to the DNA level.

A follow up article by AP quoted NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mytling as assuring that the reactor would not be re-started until a root cause of the incident was determined, and the problem fixed. However, such a promise by NRC at Davis-Besse, near Toledo, was recently broken by NRC: widespread cracking in the reactor's concrete shield building, a secondary radiological containment structure, did not stop NRC from rubberstamping the reactor's re-start on December 6th, even though the root cause, extent, and fix for the cracking have still not been determined.

The most recent update from AP reports that Exelon has announced a cause for the incident: a failed electrical insulator, which fell off.

Resistance continues against "Fermi 3" proposed new ESBWR targeted at Monroe, Michigan

An environmental coalition issued a media release on January 12, 2012, announcing numerous filings in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Fermi 3. The environmental coalition has opposed Detroit Edison's proposal to build a General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR) since the nuclear utility's combined Construction and Operations License Application (COLA) to NRC in 2008. In 2009, the coalition, comprised of Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, intervened and won standing, as well as the admission of several contentions, before an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). One of those contentions concerns thermal and toxic chemical discharges from Fermi 3 which would worsen harmful algae blooms already running rampant in Lake Erie's shallow, fragile, and biologically productive Western Basin (see photo above left).

The January 11th filings included: the environmental coalition's comments and contentions; comments by CACC; comments by the Council of the Three Fires, representing the Walpole Island First Nation; comments by Lake Erie Waterkeeper; comments by Beyond Nuclear Launch Partner Keith Gunter; comments by the Environmental Law and Policy Center and Michigan Environmental Council; and comments by expert witness Joe Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

(A comprehenisive, running list of comments, media coverage, and nuclear utility and NRC responses is now posted on Beyond Nuclear's website.)

"Another One Bites the Dust!": Progress Energy may cancel two new AP1000s targeted at Levy, Florida!

Graphic courtesy of Fairewinds Associates

As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, Progess Energy has announced an indefinite suspension of the construction plans for two Toshiba-Westinghouse so-called "Advanced Passive 1000" (AP1000) atomic reactors targeted at the greenfield (no old reactors already there) site at Levy, Florida. That's the good news. The bad news is that Florida ratepayers are nonetheless locked into paying "advance" charges for the new reactors on their electricity bills month after month for years to come, even though the reactors may never get built. Such "Construction Work in Progress" charges are illegal in most states, although have been made legal in such states as Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia in an effort to grease the skids for new atomic reactor proposals, at ratepayer expense.

By the end of last year, Progress Energy's 1.6 million Florida ratepayers had already made $545 million in "advance" payments on their electricity bills toward the Levy new reactors, or an average of about $340 per person. Progress Energy fully intends to extract yet another $555 million from its ratepayers in the years ahead, or another $350 per person, whether or not the reactors actually get built and fired up.

The Levy new reactors have been a case study in cost overruns. As the article reports, Progress Energy first estimated in 2006 that a single AP1000 would cost as little as $4 billion. The very next year, the projected price tag had jumped to $10 billion per reactor. A year after that, Progress added a second new reactor to the proposal, and estimated the cost at a total of $17 billion. But last year, the price projection had reached $22 billion for the twin AP1000s.

The project has also been a case study in schedule delays. In 2006, Progress said its new reactor would fire up in 2016. By 2009, Progress admitted the opening date had slipped two years into the future, to 2018. By 2010, the opening date had retreated yet further, to 2021. Progress is now admitting that the project won't open till 2027, if at all.

Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates in Vermont and expert witness for an environmental coalition opposed to new AP1000s targeted throughout the Southeast, was quoted as saying "It's a dramatic strategy change (by Progress)...Now, it looks like they're retreating." Gundersen has identified a major safety flaw in the AP1000's supposedly "advanced, passive" design, which could actively pump hazardous radioactivity into the environment during an accident (see graphic, above).

Lake Michigan surrounded by radioactive risks

As shown by the map in Beyond Nuclear's "Routine Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants in the United States: What Are the Dangers?", as well as by Nuclear Awareness Project's "Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots" map, Lake Michigan is surrounded by risky atomic reactors on its shores.

In Wisconsin, one reactor operates at Kewaunee, while two operate at Point Beach. Some years ago, Kewaunee alone had a majority of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "yellow findings" (second highest level of safety violation) of the entire 103 (at the time) operating reactors in the entire U.S. fleet; Point Beach had a majority -- 3 of 5 -- of the "red findings" (highest level of safety violation) in the entire country. In Michigan, two reactors operate at Cook nuclear power plant, with one operating at Palisades. Cook was shut down for major safety violations from 1997 to 2000; Palisades suffered 5 un-planned shutdowns of varying severity in 2011 alone.  In addition, the largest decommissioning in U.S. history is underway at Zion -- at least a billion dollar price tag for dismantling two 1,000 megawatt-electric reactors -- just 30 miles north of Chicago. At Big Rock Point in Michigan, despite spending $366 million on decommissioning a tiny, experimental reactor, plutonium and other radioactive hazards were left behind in the soil, groundwater, and sediments of Lake Michigan.

Rory Keane at the Medill Journalism School of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois has just published an article entitled "Nuclear Worries Abound in Great Lakes Region,"  about such radioactive risks to Lake Michigan as tritium leaks from aging atomic reactors, as well as high-level radioactive wastes stored in indoor pools and outdoor dry casks that have nowhere to go. The article quotes Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps regarding the reactor and radioactive waste risks, as well as tritium leaks: “Lake Michigan alone faces some of the major safety violations in the country...the opinion of the NRC and company was…‘dilution is the solution.’ We call that delusional.”

Entergy Nuclear suffers black eyes at both FitzPatrick, NY and Palisades, MI

Entergy's FitzPatrick GE BWR Mark 1, on the shore of Lake Ontario in upstate NYOn the same day, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has lambasted Entergy Nuclear for violations at both its FitzPatrick atomic reactor in upstate New York on the Lake Ontario shoreline, as well as at its Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

In a media release entitled "NRC CONFIRMS ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN AT FITZPATRICK NUCLEAR PLANT TO ADDRESS VIOLATIONS INVOLVING RADIATION PROTECTION PROGRAM," NRC addressed "actions... intended to address multiple violations involving radiation protection technicians at the Scriba, N.Y., plant...[involving] failures by the technicians to perform or properly execute their duties." These included:

"Failure by technicians to perform required respirator fit testing on multiple occasions from 2006 to 2009; a failure to maintain accurate documentation of completed respirator fit tests during the same period; a failure to perform and/or accurately document independent verification of certain valve positions after the valves were manipulated between September 2007 and December 2009; a failure to document a personal contamination event on at least one occasion; a failure to perform a contamination survey, or check, prior to the removal of an item from the plant’s radiologically controlled area; and a failure to carry out daily radiological surveys, on multiple occasions from 2006 to 2009, of a reactor building airlock."

FitzPatrick is a 38 year old General Electric Boiling Water Reactor of the Mark 1 design, identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4. NRC has granted FitzPatrick a 20 year license extension, as well as a power uprate.

And, in a media release entitled "NRC ISSUES CONFIRMATORY ORDERS TO PALISADES POWER PLANT OWNER AND PLANT OPERATOR," NRC discussed a 2010 incident in which "A supervisor walks off the job in the control room without permission, apparently after an argument, which leads to a violation notice."

NRC has also granted Palisades a 20 year license extension, as well as a power uprate, despite its age related degradation and litany of mishaps.