Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Status of South Texas Power Plant Flooding Uncertain, Other NPP at Risk


Wow is there a deficit of news regarding flooding at the South Texas Nuclear Power Plant facility!


Search results are extraordinarily limited using a Google "news" search, which is only bringing up stories as recent as August 25 - four days ago!






(Interestingly, Enenews' 8/28 aggregated story on the flooding is not showing up in my search results but you can read it here: http://enenews.com/nuclear-worker-imminent-flood-coming-near-nuke-plant-from-hurricane-harvey-potentially-catastrophic-running-out-of-food-working-tirelessly-to-manage-problems-area-turned-upside).

I did find one recent story, by the World Nuclear News:
Texas Nuclear Plant Runs Through Hurricane Harvey (29 August 2017). World Nuclear News, http://world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Texan-nuclear-plants-run-through-Hurricane-Harvey-2908174.html

…The company noted the plant has steel-reinforced concrete containment with four-foot (1.2 meter) thick walls. The buildings housing the two reactors, vital equipment and used fuel have steel-reinforced concrete walls, four to seven feet (1.2 to 2.1 meters) thick, which are built to withstand hurricanes and tornadoes. The plant is located 10 miles (16 kilometres) inland and at an elevation of 29 feet (8.8m) above mean sea-level. The facility is designed with watertight buildings and doors, with all buildings housing safety-related equipment being flood-proof to an elevation of at least 41 feet (12.5m).

South Texas Project's two 1280 MWe pressurized water reactors have been in commercial operation since the late 1980s. The units are owned by NRG Energy, CPS Energy and Austin Energy.

Harvey was upgraded to a category 4 hurricane on 25 August. At 6.00pm that day, it had maximum sustained winds at 130 mph. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Harvey brought over 25 inches (64cm) of rain to portions of southeast Texas since Thursday night. Although Harvey has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, another 10-20 inches is expected over parts of the upper Texas coast into southwestern Louisiana. Storm totals in some locations may approach 50 inches, it said. This is producing devastating flooding, with numerous flash flood warnings in effect.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said current weather projections for Harvey do not pose a threat to the Waterford nuclear power plant in New Orleans and the River Bend plant near Baton Rouge. However, it said it is monitoring for any changes to those projections….

As you can read above, despite its reassuring tone, the article mentions that two other nuclear power plants are also at risk from Harvey-caused flooding:


The Waterford nuclear power plant in New Orleans here
The River Bend plant near Baton Rouge here

The story of nuclear power plants at risk of Harvey flooding looks to me to be highly managed. The deficit of coverage is interesting given the potential level of risk.

It is important to keep in mind that spent fuel pools are at special risk for flooding, which would result in widespread contamination. The risks associated with spent fuel pools and flooding are rarely discussed but may be greater than the risk of a reactor meltdown from flooding.

Moreover, nuclear power sites are highly contaminated with Tritium and potentially other radionuclides as well. Flooding at nuclear power plants adds to the staggering contamination occurring as our industrial waste is "liquefied" in flood waters and circulated throughout human habituation....

The lack of effective crisis communications to the public concerning nuclear security certainly encourages speculation.



6 comments:

  1. " The Houston area's rivers have started to flood. Harris County officials earlier on Tuesday warned residents of six northern Houston neighborhoods to evacuate around two water reservoirs that had started overflowing."

    cited in Levee breach due to Harvey forces evacuation in Houston suburb. (Aug 29, 2017). MSN, http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/levee-breach-due-to-harvey-forces-evacuation-in-houston-suburb/ar-AAqWqEN?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=SK216DHP

    ReplyDelete
  2. The global Elite would just as soon these sites do go bad. There can not be too much chaos.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh stfu you trump-shill-artificial intelligence-piece of crap. You could care less if people die. Your nihilistic programmers have loosed you to take advantage of peoples extreme, cognitive dissonance and mistrust. You and your handlers are trying to manipulate from both side of the same coin. You are racist killers and psycopaths. Your cohort could care less about, war, nuclear weapons or nuclear power. Its all a game of manipulation for you to keep your psychos and generals in power. It is to keep Your malignant narcissist ringer in, for more war, nukes, death and destruction. Not satisfied with destroying everything, you fascist and Nazi bastards want to kill most everything. You think there will be some spoils left but, there will be nothing.

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  4. I understand your frustration about the status quo but please don't resort to personal attacks!

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  5. I am sorry Majia but, I had a relative roughed up by Arpaio and his goons in Phoenix. Roughed-up for the crime of having a darker complexion.
    This guy, says Arpaio should be pardoned. He spouts propaganda about some goofy antifa thing. I am will tell you Majia, the majority of Americans are APPALLED, at the glorification of white supremacy, racial violence and murder, cops killing mothers, fathers, and children without thinking very hard about it. The uberfuhrer and his minions sensationalize it.
    There are a lot of white hippocrits who go on about the corporate ecosides going on and yet they support the swampmonster king, and the ecogenocidal-actions of his ideology.

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    Replies
    1. Greetings Moriyuki
      I do think the majority of Americans are also appalled at the glorification of white supremacy, racial violence, etc. They just need to let their voices be heard...

      Delete

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