AP Wire | 11/10/2005 | Pieces of nuclear fuel rods missing at Ga. plant
AP Wire | 11/10/2005 | Pieces of nuclear fuel rods missing at Ga. plant: "
Posted on Thu, Nov. 10, 2005
Associated Press
SAVANNAH, Ga. - Pieces of highly radioactive fuel rods are missing from a nuclear plant in southeast Georgia, and Georgia Power Co. acknowledged it's likely some will never be found.
The utility said more than 5 feet of spent fuel rods, removed in the 1980s from a reactor at Edwin I. Hatch nuclear plant near Baxley in southeast Georgia, could not be found during an inventory last month.
The pencil-thin rods, kept in containment pools at the plant, emit lethal doses of radiation. Georgia Power spokesman Tal Wright said the pieces likely remain unfound in the pools or were shipped to a waste disposal facility.
"Many of these pieces would be minute, and its quite possible some of them could have broken up into smaller pieces over time," Wright said. "It's likely we will not find much of this. We've already put a significant effort into it."
Georgia Power, which operates the plant, notified the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the missing pieces Monday.
NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said the deadly radioactivity of the pieces makes them virtually impossible to steal and they would not have left the plant without setting off its radiation monitors.
"From a public health and safety standpoint, it's extremely unlikely this could have gotten into the public domain," Hannah said. "This is not the kind of material you could walk out of there with and expect to survive."
At the Baxley plant, about 90 miles southwest of Savannah, workers have been searching 40-feet-deep containment pools with robotic cameras. But it's like hunting for a needle in a haystack, Wright said. The plant's two reactors and two spent-fuel pools hold 4.75 million feet of fuel rods.
It's possible some of the missing pieces were swept up during cleaning of the pools and sent with other waste to a disposal facility, Wright said.
In the 1980s, some fuel rods had be removed from a reactor because of corrosion, which required them to be taken out in pieces.
Hannah said NRC inspectors were looking into the plant's record-keeping and accountability programs. He could not specify what type of fines or sanctions the plant might face.
"There's certainly the possibility there could be some sort of enforcement action," Hannah said. "It's too early at this point to say what that might be."
The NRC in February ordered all commercial nuclear plants to inventory their spent fuel pools. The Georgia plant isn't the first to report missing fuel rods to federal regulators.
Last year, operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant near Brattleboro, Vt., reported it could not find two pieces of spent fuel rods removed from its reactor in 1979.
In 2000, the Millstone One nuclear plant near New London, Conn., told regulators it had misplaced two fuel rods of 13 1/2 feet in length. "
Posted on Thu, Nov. 10, 2005
Associated Press
SAVANNAH, Ga. - Pieces of highly radioactive fuel rods are missing from a nuclear plant in southeast Georgia, and Georgia Power Co. acknowledged it's likely some will never be found.
The utility said more than 5 feet of spent fuel rods, removed in the 1980s from a reactor at Edwin I. Hatch nuclear plant near Baxley in southeast Georgia, could not be found during an inventory last month.
The pencil-thin rods, kept in containment pools at the plant, emit lethal doses of radiation. Georgia Power spokesman Tal Wright said the pieces likely remain unfound in the pools or were shipped to a waste disposal facility.
"Many of these pieces would be minute, and its quite possible some of them could have broken up into smaller pieces over time," Wright said. "It's likely we will not find much of this. We've already put a significant effort into it."
Georgia Power, which operates the plant, notified the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the missing pieces Monday.
NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said the deadly radioactivity of the pieces makes them virtually impossible to steal and they would not have left the plant without setting off its radiation monitors.
"From a public health and safety standpoint, it's extremely unlikely this could have gotten into the public domain," Hannah said. "This is not the kind of material you could walk out of there with and expect to survive."
At the Baxley plant, about 90 miles southwest of Savannah, workers have been searching 40-feet-deep containment pools with robotic cameras. But it's like hunting for a needle in a haystack, Wright said. The plant's two reactors and two spent-fuel pools hold 4.75 million feet of fuel rods.
It's possible some of the missing pieces were swept up during cleaning of the pools and sent with other waste to a disposal facility, Wright said.
In the 1980s, some fuel rods had be removed from a reactor because of corrosion, which required them to be taken out in pieces.
Hannah said NRC inspectors were looking into the plant's record-keeping and accountability programs. He could not specify what type of fines or sanctions the plant might face.
"There's certainly the possibility there could be some sort of enforcement action," Hannah said. "It's too early at this point to say what that might be."
The NRC in February ordered all commercial nuclear plants to inventory their spent fuel pools. The Georgia plant isn't the first to report missing fuel rods to federal regulators.
Last year, operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant near Brattleboro, Vt., reported it could not find two pieces of spent fuel rods removed from its reactor in 1979.
In 2000, the Millstone One nuclear plant near New London, Conn., told regulators it had misplaced two fuel rods of 13 1/2 feet in length. "
posted by Greta Jane at Friday, November 11, 2005
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