Monday, March 28, 2011

US Nuclear Plant Fire Risks

New York says Indian Point nuclear plant a fire risk: Scientific American. "The Indian Point nuclear power plant has more than 100 fire code violations that could make it difficult to shut down the nearly 40-year facility in an emergency, New York's attorney general said on Monday."

And here is a contender for dumbest response of the year: "A spokesman for Entergy said the number of fire code violations was about one-third the number cited by the state." They should probably lose their license on the sheer dumbness of their PR.

Meanwhile, there was a Small fire in protected area of Seabrook nuclear plant. "An alert at New Hampshire’s Seabrook Nuclear Plant just before noon Monday -- fire broke out in one of its building – sending Seabrook Station into emergency response mode." It was related to an elevator motor in a support building so not too big a deal.

Still though, it makes you question how just three days ago, the N.H. House kills nuke plant monitoring bill. "The New Hampshire House has killed a bill that would have required real-time radiological monitoring in the communities that surround the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant." I don't know if it's needed and the article talks a bit about the cost estimating it at $500,000 to setup and about $100,000 a year to run. If I'm reading the financials right, last year NextEra Energy made close to $2 billion in profit.

Entergy made $1.2 billion in profit last year, maybe they could invest in clearing up the fire hazards in their nuclear power plant. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?


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