Monday, October 29, 2012

Fire Hoses as Last Resort to Cool Nuclear Rods When All Else Fails



EXCERPTED:

* Exelon Corp declares alert at New Jersey Oyster Creek nuclear plant on storm surge

* Further water rise could mean fire hose to cool spent rods-NRC spokesman

SOURCE: UPDATE 1-US nuclear plant declares "alert" after Sandy storm surge-NRC Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:51am EDT http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/30/storm-sandy-exelon-oystercreek-idUSL3E8LU1S120121030


GUNDERSEN ON DEMOCRACY NOW:

"The biggest problem, as I see it right now, is the Oyster Creek plant, which is on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey," says former nuclear executive Arnie Gundersen, noting it lies in the projected eye of the storm. "Oyster Creek is the same design, but even older than Fukushima Daiichi unit 1. It’s in a refueling outage. That means that all the nuclear fuel is not in the nuclear reactor, but it’s over in the spent fuel pool. And in that condition, there’s no backup power for the spent fuel pools. So, if Oyster Creek were to lose its offsite power — and, frankly, that’s really likely — there would be no way cool that nuclear fuel that’s in the fuel pool until they get the power reestablished. ... The most important lesson we can take out of the Fukushima Daiichi and climate change, and especially with Hurricane Sandy, is that we can’t expect to cool these fueling pools."
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2012/10/29/nuclear_plants_from_virginia_to_vermont

HAT TIP: ENENEWS 
http://enenews.com/gundersen-on-tv-biggest-problem-i-see-is-oyster-creek-plant-near-jersey-shore-no-way-to-cool-spent-fuel-pool-while-power-is-out-all-nuclear-fuel-is-in-pool-none-in-reactor-video/comment-page-1#comment-299622



1 comment:

  1. I have never thought of these hoses being used this way before. This is really interesting. I know that have enormous pressure, but will it be enough? Thanks for the great article!

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