Monday, August 28, 2017

Flooding at Texas Nuclear Plant?


Hat Tip: Thank you John

Not surprisingly, the South Texas Nuclear Plant is endangered by flooding from Hurricane Harvey, as described at these two links:
http://baycitytribune.com/community/article_5f4df9c6-89ca-11e7-aacd-07ebcbc91cf5.html

http://investmentwatchblog.com/developing-inland-flood-crisis-at-texas-nuclear-plant-texans-weigh-in/
The South Texas Nuclear Plant has a troubled history:
Kate Galbraith (2013, April 23). Four Months After Fire, Nuclear Reactor Restarts. Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/23/texas-nuclear-unit-restarts-four-months-after-fire/

Four months after a fire shut it down, a nuclear reactor at the South Texas Project in Bay City is being restarted. That is the second prolonged shutdown at the plant in two years, prompting critics to demand closer scrutiny of the operation. by Kate Galbraith April 23, 2013....
Robert Crowe (2011, march 30). Security of South Texas Project debated in the wake of Fukushima nuclear disaster. San Antonio Current, https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/security-of-south-texas-project-debated-in-the-wake-of-fukushima-nuclear-disaster/Content?oid=2290463
Texas’ anti-nuclear activists say STP also has a history of safety problems and nagging maintenance issues with tritium releases and stuck fuel rods (caused by modern retrofits not working properly with old infrastructure). Critics say reactor operators and the NRC continue to let these issues slide because the agency’s enforcement process is too forgiving. While the NRC defended STP’s safety record, saying the most recent assessment of the plant placed it in the lowest tier for potential safety risk of all U.S. reactors, opponents are critical of the practice of using “resident inspectors” at STP and beyond — a process they say breeds safety complacency as the relationship between federal employees and site workers becomes too cozy. 

Hope for the best....

4 comments:

  1. http://www.680news.com/2017/08/27/canadian-expats-hunker-down-as-remnants-of-hurricane-harvey-ravage-texas/

    Note Raihan Khondker
    A nuclear engineer in Houston. He was brought back to Houston to deal with the STP nuclear plant mess in Bay City Texas. The reactor has a cooling reservoir , whose dam is on the verge of collapsing. There is also a used fuel storage pool there, not unlike the fuel storage pools at fukushima. If the nuclear fuel pool storage tank is damaged from the massive onslaughts of water, and it drains, the rods stored there clan catch fire. This will bellow several tons of radioactive cesium, strontium, and other highly toxic radionuclide's into the surrounding areas. That is, even with all the rain.
    Canadian expats hunker down as remnants of hurricane Harvey ravage Texas

    NATIONAL

    by THE CANADIAN PRESS

    Posted Aug 27, 2017 5:04 pm EDT

     

    Last Updated Aug 28, 2017 at 10:20 am EDT

    HOUSTON – Canadian expats living in Texas said they’ve gone days without sleep as the remnants of hurricane Harvey continue to deluge the southeast coast Sunday.

    Megan Giffin-Scheffers, who moved from Halifax to Houston four years ago, said “everything is overflowing” in the Texas city, which is the fourth-largest in the U.S., as rising waters force thousands of people out of their homes.

    Giffin-Scheffers, a mother of three, said she hasn’t slept properly in two days as she and her husband take shifts on the lookout for signs of danger.

    Every time her phone lights up with a tornado alert, her family has to hunker down in their pantry as wind gusts howl through the city like “freight trains,” she said.

    “As Canadians … I don’t think we really understood the impact of a hurricane,” Giffin-Scheffers said in a phone interview. “I’m homesick every single day, and when something like this happens, that’s just when I want to pack up and move back.”

    Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, who is training in Houston, posted photos to social media of neighbourhoods flooded with murky waters that almost fully submerged a car.

    “Feeling like an ant in an anthill today, here by the grace of Mother Nature,” he tweeted. “Sometimes we get stepped on.”

    Isabelle Dion, who is from Saint-Césaire, Que., says her home in Houston has been spared from damage, but it’s scary not to know what will happen when night falls.

    “Imagine a shower that’s full capacity and it never stops,” said Dion. “Tornado warnings, and tornado warnings. Every five minutes of the night your cell phone goes on, and it’s very difficult.”

    Canadian engineer Raihan Khondker said his family safely left their home in southeastern Texas, but he returned to the Bay City area as part of a support team at a nuclear power plant.

    For three days, Khondker, who is from Toronto, has been working tirelessly to manage “one thing after another,” driving through water-choked streets to help out where he can.

    Khondker said houses in his neighbourhood have been turned “upside down,” and rising waters in a nearby river threaten to send a potentially catastrophic flood into the area.



    “Every single creek in the neighbourhood is full,” he said. “There is an imminent flood coming to Bay City, we just don’t know how much water we are going to see.”

    Harvey slammed into Texas as a Category-4 hurricane Friday and has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, which is causing torrential rains.

    — With files from The Associated Press

    ReplyDelete
  2. Spent rod fuel pool South Texas Project Nuclear reactors, Bay City , Texas
    http://www.nukeworker.com/pictures/displayimage-152-2935.html#top_display_media

    ReplyDelete
  3. Worker walks by spent fuel pool at STP Bay City Nuclear Plant 2017
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/amp/Nuclear-energy-in-doubt-amid-high-costs-11946922.php

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Canadian engineer Raihan Khondker said his family safely left their home in southeastern Texas, but he was forced to return to the Bay City area as part of a support team at a nuclear power plant.

    For three days, Khondker, who is from Toronto, has been working tirelessly to manage “one thing after another,” driving through water-choked streets to bring supplies to engineers at the plant who are running out of food." http://globalnews.ca/news/3699700/canadian-expats-hurricane-harvey/

    ReplyDelete

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