Emergency Declared at FitzPatrick Nuclear, Plant Shut Down
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OSWEGO, New York, July 1, 2005 (ENS) - An emergency was declared last night at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant eight miles northeast of Oswego, and the plant was manually shut down from full power.
During a scheduled inspection carried out only once every 15 years, inspectors discovered a 'small through wall crack' below the waterline of the large tank surrounding the drywell that contains the reactor, and 'a small puddle below leak.'
After “further engineering analysis determined that operability of the primary containment was not assured,” the reactor was ordered shut down by the shift manager at 7:30 last night.
Normally the tank surrounding the drywell is half full of water. The crack challenged the structural integrity of the reactor's primary containment and forced the plant, operated by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., to be shut down. Entergy could not be reached for comment on the incident.
The FitzPatrick plant is located on the shore of Lake Ontario, about 50 miles northwest of the nearest large city Syracuse, New York.
FitzPatrick has a boiling water reactor manufactured by the General Electric Company. FitzPatrick is equipped with GE’s Mark I primary containment design, sometimes called a lightbulb in a donut because of its shape.
Nuclear engineer David Lochbaum with the Union of Concerned Scientists questions the scope and frequency of the inspection program at FitzPatrick.
On July 28, 2003, he recounts, Entergy asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for permission to perform integrated tests of containment integrity at FitzPatrick every 15 years instead of every 10 years.
In that request, Entergy described its inspection program for the primary containment saying, 'These inspections [of the drywell] provide a high degree of assurance that any degradation of the contai"
OSWEGO, New York, July 1, 2005 (ENS) - An emergency was declared last night at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant eight miles northeast of Oswego, and the plant was manually shut down from full power.
During a scheduled inspection carried out only once every 15 years, inspectors discovered a 'small through wall crack' below the waterline of the large tank surrounding the drywell that contains the reactor, and 'a small puddle below leak.'
After “further engineering analysis determined that operability of the primary containment was not assured,” the reactor was ordered shut down by the shift manager at 7:30 last night.
Normally the tank surrounding the drywell is half full of water. The crack challenged the structural integrity of the reactor's primary containment and forced the plant, operated by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., to be shut down. Entergy could not be reached for comment on the incident.
The FitzPatrick plant is located on the shore of Lake Ontario, about 50 miles northwest of the nearest large city Syracuse, New York.
FitzPatrick has a boiling water reactor manufactured by the General Electric Company. FitzPatrick is equipped with GE’s Mark I primary containment design, sometimes called a lightbulb in a donut because of its shape.
Nuclear engineer David Lochbaum with the Union of Concerned Scientists questions the scope and frequency of the inspection program at FitzPatrick.
On July 28, 2003, he recounts, Entergy asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for permission to perform integrated tests of containment integrity at FitzPatrick every 15 years instead of every 10 years.
In that request, Entergy described its inspection program for the primary containment saying, 'These inspections [of the drywell] provide a high degree of assurance that any degradation of the contai"
posted by Greta Jane at Saturday, July 02, 2005
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