It’s particularly worrisome to think that concerned Americans may look at Japan and wonder if our respective nuclear industries operate in the same way. Part of the mission of Clean Energy America is to educate the public and reassure them that the United States nuclear energy industry has been and will always be committed to keeping the public safe. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) holds the industry accountable and many could argue that they set the global standard for the proper regulation of nuclear energy. In addition to the NRC, nuclear facilities have to comply with state regulators as well as self-imposed regulations required by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). Of course, this blog is not the venue to outline all of the regulations imposed upon the industry, but the following I find to be rather reassuring.

1)      Each nuclear facility is required by law to have an emergency preparedness plan and to conduct a full-scale emergency exercise every two years.

2)      Emergency preparedness plans continually evolve. The learning culture within nuclear energy industry is such that the sharing of information, lessons learned and best practices is not only encouraged, but required. The “stovepipe” thinking that proved disastrous in Japan is virtually nonexistent in the United States.

3)      Emergency plans ALWAYS provide layers upon layers of safety features and are required to take into account a wide array of possibilities, such as natural disasters and terrorist threats.

For more information please visit the Nuclear Energy Institute at NEI.org.

Link to this site to see what the drawing contest is all about and vote for your favorite drawing:

  http://www.cleanenergyinsight.org/energy-insights/vote-2011-na-ygn-drawing-contest/

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Timpla

On the other hand, someone in the media was talking about a potential “doomsday earthquake-nuclear disaster.”

Both of these comments bother me.

The nuclear industry has a unique responsibility to the public to maintain safety at all times. This is not a victory for the industry. This is our day-to-day job. We will look at what happened in Virginia on Tuesday and make sure that we learn from it to improve our response to the next event.

At the same time, we don’t have to wave our hands in the air and panic. Nuclear energy facilities are some of the most robust designs ever implemented- and we are always improving them.  This is an industry that is accountable for safe operation with one of the strongest oversight bodies in the world.

The facility remained safe at all times. It has 5 large, redundant backup diesels on site, of which you really use 4 at a time. One of the initial 4 was removed from service due to a leak and the 5th was subsequently placed into service to replace it. Offsite (grid) power has since been restored, and the plants are cooling down so that further inspections can be performed.  This is a standard procedure based on size of earth motion at the site relative to the design. They are monitoring small aftershocks, but they have not been challenged by them.

 We, as an industry, have been looking now to further improve our safety margin by implementing diverse safety systems that don’t rely on the traditional large diesels. The lessons we learned from September 11^th and Fukushima are important and are continuously being integrated into our plant design and procedures. These improvements aren’t a victory or something to brag about how great we are. They are our job.

North Anna Nuclear Power Plant (located very near the epicenter of today’s earthquake) declared an Unusual Event following today’s earthquake. It has been reported that both units (2 unit site) shut off their reactors and disconnected from the grid. While I don’t know the specific cause of their shutdowns, the emergency level (Unusual Event or UE) is a sign that things are a-ok in Central Virginia.

The systems for generating electricity for the grid are not designed to handle earthquake loads. So a shutdown is not a reliable sign of safety problems.

North Anna did lose offsite power, which is also not considered a seismically reliable (“earthquake proof”) component. It makes the response more annoying, but it is not a big safety issue. Land (phone) lines to plant are down, but there are satellite phones on site for safety related backup communications (assuming cells, etc are not working).

All nuclear power plants in the United States are designed for the largest estimated earthquake in the area plus additional margin. While seismic scientists have gotten their share of criticism this year, structural engineers are pretty good at overcompensating by over-designing everything.

Update @ 7:25 pm

North Anna actually declared an ‘Alert’, the second lowest emergency level- my initial report was from unconfirmed media accounts.  This declaration is based upon the loss of power from the grid.  All the emergency diesels are reported to be operating normally. Several other plants declared procedurally driven ‘Unusual Events,’ but no other plants shut down.

The safety systems at nuclear facilities in the US got tested pretty hard by Mother Nature this year.  From tornadoes to floods to earthquakes, we saw impressively safe performance.  We aren’t resting on our past success.  We make sure we are learning from every event to improve our performance- and to provide you safe and reliable power.

In the past year alone, it seems as if all the industries that provide baseload electricity have received a bad rap (and some rightfully so) because of their inattention to safety and public health. Immediately after Fukushima the nuclear industry has been forced to answer some pretty pointed questions from the public with respect to safety, plant designs and the general culture of our industry and respective companies. However, the fact is that the nuclear industry routinely answers the tough questions. The nuclear energy industry in the United States is unique in that plant workers all around the country have to account for their actions to federal regulators every single day. Furthermore, they are required to share information and best practices with colleagues in competing companies. The greatest thing is that many of the nuclear professionals I talk to are more than happy to share information as they believe the industry is only as strong as its weakest link.

I have only been involved with the nuclear industry for about seven months now, so the idea of sharing information seems counter intuitive to me. However, when you start talking to these professionals you see that many of them are husbands and wives, mothers and fathers and to them the safety of their family and communities comes before everything.

For those of you that are naive to this concept as I was, radiation hormesis is the theory that exposure to low levels of radiation (in addition to background radiation) can actually have a positive effect.  It has been the general belief that low doses of ionizing radiation produce detrimental effects proportional to the effects produced by high-level radiation. However, according to my colleague, over the past few decades, some pioneer scientists report that low-dose ionizing radiation is not only a harmless agent but often has a beneficial or hormetic effect.

Intrigued by the discussion, I have started my own investigation. I will add additional posts as I find some reliable studies.

I’d like to hear what others think about this theory.

Radiation Hormesis: Fact or Fiction?

New York

This morning I arose to find myself in Buffalo, New York. I’ll be speaking for Professor Whittaker at the University of Buffalo. Of course the concern at the front of everyone’s mind is the plant status at Fukushima Daiichi.

Last night (US time) the Japanese announced that this accident would be upgraded to a ‘7’ on the INES scale, the most serious.  It’s important to say this classification is not a change of the “boots on the ground” situation.  They just had the time to look at their paperwork and come to the conclusion many of the rest of us had already made- a ‘5’ was too low.

A concerning thing about their announcement was the amount of radioactivity they were postulating had escaped. Arguing about those numbers is kind of silly though. I don’t really care about the total number; I just want to make sure the environment and public health is protected. 

On that note we do have some good news.  We are finally seeing very clear lowering of the contamination levels of the Pacific near Fukushima Daiichi.  It looks like the pipe tunnel leak they plugged a week or so ago was the only major leak path.  We’ll continue to keep an eye on that.

Contamination numbers (even inside the evacuated zone) remain well less than the numbers that were seen at Chernobyl. Still, when Chernobyl becomes a reasonable yardstick, it’s a little depressing.  Dose rates continue to go down, but as time passes, improvement starts to diminish due to the nature of the isotope mix.

They also anticipate the commencement of water removal from the Unit 2 Turbine Building. This is an important sign that they may start managing the water leakage rather than working in a totally reactive state.  The more they get that water stored away, the more other recovery work they can do too.

Aftershocks continue to delay work on site, but they don’t seem to be doing any unrecoverable damage. It’s very difficult working conditions and my prayers continue to go out to the workers there.  The American Nuclear Society has set up a relief fund at www.ans.org/about/japanrelief/ .   Please consider donating.

Second, please get the facts from credible sources. The world-wide nuclear industry has come together to share information on the current events as well as background information for if you don’t understand. Each has valuable resources to understand what is going on in Japan.

World Nuclear News by the World Nuclear Association

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/default.aspx

International Atomic Energy Agency

http://www.iaea.org/

Nuclear Energy Institute

http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/

American Nuclear Society

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/

 Where exactly is Mr. Cuomo getting his information? Nuclear power plants are one of the safest forms of power generation there is. The industry stands proud in touting its safety standards and safety awards; such as STP, South Texas Project, being named as one of Americas Safest Companies in 2010. To this day there has not been one death associated with operating a commercial nuclear power plant. Can any other industry say that? I dare say no.

The nuclear industry keeps such a safety conscious culture because 1. We are so heavily regulated 2. The men and women at these plants must pass rigorous training and retraining year in and year out, and 3. The designs of these plants have included automated safety systems that would automatically shut the plant down on the slightest detection of irregularity. The safety measures are there Mr. Cuomo, please come and visit a nuclear power plant and see for yourself. 

Mr. Cuomo also talks about the nuclear power plant being a target for terrorism. Well Mr. Cuomo, the plant was designed to withstand a plane crash. There is about 4-6 ft of concrete and rebar in the containment wall along with more than an 1 inch of a steal lining which protects the reactor from damage. Speaking of terrorist targets, have you looked at Yankee Stadium, or the NY Jets/Patriots stadiums as potential targets? They don’t have nearly half of the safety measures nuclear power plants have, but are you trying to shut them down? Of course not; The mere mention of it would send anger throughout the communities and put you out of a job. There are no other industries as capable of dealing with security as is the nuclear industry. 

Shutting down Indian Point, Mr. Cuomo, would help raise electricity rates for millions of New Yorkers and allow for further pollution of the New York air as more gas and oil generating plants would be needed to replace the lost clean energy Indian Point generates. 

So Mr. Cuomo, I urge you to do more research on the industry and the effects on the State of New York and on the millions of New Yorkers by your premature jump on the anti-nuclear band wagon.

Read the article here: http://www.detnews.com/article/20101111/OPINION01/11110355/1008/opinion01/Nuclear-power-needed-now