(Hit on images to enlarge)I hate to sound like a broken record on Turkey Point safety. Hey wait a minute, it is not me it’s the FEDS! according to reporter Curtis Morgan in the Miami Herald today:TURKEY POINT: FPL's guards slept on job at nuclear plant, feds say:
“Security guards at Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuclear power plant slept on the job, or covered for snoozing colleagues, on a number of occasions from 2004 to 2006, federal regulators said Tuesday.”
So, when I figured (a month or two ago) that I could have gotten on the “secured” site with a bit of effort - I might have been right! I wonder if I can become a guard? I too like to sleep.
I found this other disturbing document on the Nuclear Regulatory Website (in addition to the other disturbing document about a hole someone drilled in a pipe that the FBI is still offering a $100,000 reward for, to apprehend the unknown culprit - see FBI letter in my July 2nd post). If I am reading the document below right...the number of staff to cover most of the safety is four? Could that be? Am I reading this right? And what if two might be sleeping?
I was amused to read that “feel good about two new reactors (to total 4) at Turkey Point” Op Ed piece in the Herald a few days ago, put out by Florida Power and Light, touting their great safety history. I feel real good about this "Clean Energy" expansion! Not.
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Thought this list might interest you (from NRC website)
October 2007
PNO-IV-07-008D
10/26/2007
Southern California Edison Company San Onofre Units 2 & 3: Southern California Brush Fires and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Status (Update)
PNO-IV-07-008C
10/25/2007
Southern California Edison Company San Onofre Units 2 & 3: Southern California Brush Fires and San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Status (Update)
PNO-IV-07-008B
10/25/2007
Southern California Edison Company San Onofre Units 2 & 3: Southern California Brush Fires and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Status (Update)
PNO-II-07-013
10/24/2007
Browns Ferry 1, 2 and 3: Browns Ferry Refueling Floor Crane Cable Deformation
PNO-IV-07-009
10/24/2007
Entergy Operations, Inc. (Arkansas Nuclear One): Alert at Arkansas Nuclear One Unit 2
PNO-IV-07-008A
10/23/2007
Southern California Edison Company San Onofre Units 2 & 3: Southern California Brush Fires and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Status (Update)
PNO-IV-07-008
10/23/2007
Southern California Edison Company San Onofre Units 2 & 3: Southern California Brush Fires and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Status
PNO-III-07-012
10/23/2007 Exelon Generation Company, LLC: Both Units at Byron Shut Down Due to Leak in Pipe
PNO-II-07-009B
10/22/2007 Farley Unit 1: Extended Farley Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) (Update)
PNO-IV-07-007
10/22/2007 Arizona Public Service Company: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1 Technical Specification Required Reactor Shutdown
PNO-III-08-011
10/16/2007 Exelon Nuclear Generating Company: Tritium Leakage
PNO-III-07-010A
10/15/2007 Fermi: Unusual Event Terminated at Fermi & Special Inspection Team Dispatched (Update)
PNO-III-07-010
10/12/2007 Fermi: Unusual Event Declared at Fermi Due at Unexpected Piping Hole and Indentations
PNO-II-07-012
10/11/2007 Catawba Nuclear Station Units 1 & 2: Onsite Ground Water Tritium Contamination
PNO-II-07-011A
10/01/2007 Browns Ferry Unit 3: Pressure Boundary Leakage Discovered During Drywell Inspection (Update)
September 2007
PNO-II-07-009A
09/28/2007 Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant Unit 1: Component Cooling Water Pump Breaker Failures (Update)
PNO-II-07-011 09/24/2007 Browns Ferry Unit 3: Pressure Boundary Leakage Discovered During Drywell Inspection
PNO-I-07-009
09/20/2007 Nine Mile Point Unit 2: Inadvert Discharge of Carbon Dioxide
PNO-I-07-008
09/14/2007 Vermont Yankee: Restoration of West Cooling Towers
PNO-II-07-010
09/10/2007 McGuire Nuclear Station: Special Inspection To Review Charging Pump Oil Coolers
PNO-II-07-009
09/10/2007 Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant Unit 1: Component Cooling Water Pump Breaker Failures
August 2007
PNO-II-07-008A
08/31/2007 St. Lucie Unit 2: Shutdown to Repair Reactor Coolant Pump Seal Injection Line Leak (Update)
PNO-II-07-008
08/20/2007 St. Lucie Unit 2: Shutdown to Repair Reactor Coolant Pump Seal Injection Line Leak
PNO-I-07-007
08/08/2007 Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station: Alert Declared due to Carbon Dioxide Leak from a Portable Fire Extinguisher in the Diesel Generator Building
PNO-II-07-007
08/02/2007 Brunswick Steam and Electric Plant (Unit 1): Unit 1, ‘B’ Residual Heat Removal Service Water Motor Operated Supply Valve Failure
July 2007
PNO-III-07-009A
07/24/2007 First Energy Nuclear Operating Company: Unexpected Reactor Shut Down Exceeding 72 Hours Due to Problem with Reactor Recirculation Pump Motor (Update)
PNO-I-07-006A
07/24/2007 Oyster Creek: Reactor Scram on Low Reactor Vessel Water Level Due to a Trip of the 'C' Reactor Feed Pump (Update)
PNO-I-07-006
07/19/2007 Oyster Creek: Reactor Scram on Low Reactor Vessel Water Level Due to a Trip of the 'C' Reactor Feed Pump
PNO-III-07-009
07/05/2007 First Energy Nuclear Operating Company: Unexpected Reactor Shut Down Exceeding 72 Hours Due to Problem with Reactor Recirculation Pump Motor
PNO-II-07-006
07/02/2007 North Anna Power Station (Unit 2): Unit 2 Spurious Safety Injection Partial Actuation and Reactor Trip
June 2007
PNO-IV-07-006A
06/27/2007 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Unit 2: Unit 2 Reactor Shutdown (Update)
PNO-III-07-008A
06/26/2007 Point Beach Unit 1: Unit 1 Reactor Shutdown (Update)
PNO-IV-07-006
06/22/2007 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Unit 2: Unit 2 Reactor Shutdown
PNO-III-07-008
06/18/2007 Point Beach Unit 1: Unit 1 Reactor Shutdown
PNO-II-07-005
06/14/2007 Brunswick Steam Electric Plant: Onsite Surface Water and Ground Water Tritium Contamination
PNO-III-07-007A
06/11/2007 Point Beach Unit 1: Manual Reactor Trip (Update)
PNO-III-07-007
06/08/2007 Point Beach Unit 1: Manual Reactor Trip
PNO-IV-07-005A
06/04/2007 River Bend Station: Reactor Shutdown Due to Unexpected Change in Recircuation Flow (Update)
May 2007
PNO-IV-07-005 05/23/2007 River Bend Station: Reactor Shutdown Due to Unexpected Change in Recirculation Flow
PNO-III-07-006A 05/14/2007 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.: Palisades Shutdown Due to Low Steam Generator Level (Update)
PNO-III-07-006 05/09/2007 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.: Palisades Shutdown Due to Low Steam Generator Level
You are not the only one thinking about Terrorists at Turkey Point -- CSI Miami had a show about a terrorist plot at Turkey Point (from blog Shades of Caruso):
...they just happen to find out that this murky terrorist cell is -- OMG! -- planning to blow up a nuclear power plant. Pretty lucky that they didn't take a long lunch that day, because apparently no other law-enforcement agency (even the unit that was investigating it undercover) was aware of this until our intrepid crime-solvers stumbled upon it. And since the usual protocol for defusing terrorist plots is to call in crime-scene investigators, Horatio is here to save the day!
Oh, how do I even pick out a favorite moment? People shouting "Turkey Point"? Wolfe saying "nucular"? The action subtitles that helpfully keep certain key phrases on the screen longer than others? Horatio's unerring aim for blowing things up? His somewhat confused expression at the end?
http://www.amazon.com/Terrorism-Turkey-Clyde-E-Roach/dp/0595300529
Pulp Fiction?
Save It Now, Glades! monitored Florida Power and Light’s proposal to site a pulverized coal power plant in Moore Haven, Florida very closely from September 2006, when the County Commission announced their approval of the land use zoning change the secret negotiations that had been going on with the applicant, until the PSC denial of the project in June 2007. To our horror and dismay, almost every level of government and every regulatory agency from which they sought approval was politically constrained in their implementation of policy and enforcement of statute. The $21 million carrot that the applicant held out, the promises of high salaried long term jobs in a poor rural county, and the monetary favors to various Glades County institutions blinded the locals to the potential harm of siting such a facility. The SFWMD acted more like a private environmental consulting firm to FPL than anything else, boasting of how water consumption at the headwaters of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries would help mitigate nutrient laded fresh pulses. Similarly, the Florida DEP indulged FPL by holding more than the required number of local public meetings, during which they admitted much of the data was not available to model the impact of the emissions on the local area or region, yet sang the praises of the “advanced technology” that would be employed at the Glades Power “Park”. If it was as harmless as the applicant, their PR professionals, and the regulatory agencies said (even without complete application packages), why then all the secrecy? Why was FPL allowed to appear at so many meetings unannounced? Why was the Public Service Commission legally bound to evaluate the appropriateness of the cost to the ratepayer without all the benefit of many of the costs presented to them?
In the case of FPL and Glades County, power plant siting or expansion in Miami-Dade is not just a local issue, but regional. It is with this in mind that we are writing to express our grave concern over increased nuclear generating capacity in south Florida.
A nuclear power plant generates much more than electricity. It generates the most dangerous and persistent waste known to mankind, for which we have no safe long term storage, nor safe means of transporting it there if we had one. There are emissions of radionuclides to the air, water, soil and containment structures which lead to human exposure, the closer the proximity the more extreme the exposure.
A tremendous amount of soil will need to be mined in order to provide the pad for the new structure. This will be only a small part of the cost of the overall project to the ratepayers. The cost of uranium is predicted to increase dramatically after the easily extractable material has been consumed. Some experts predict that we have only a ten year supply of uranium which is cost effective to extract for fuel. The cost of clearing an old reactor site after decommissioning is so prohibitive it has never been done.
There are two items which such a densely populated county must consider extremely seriously: consumptive use of water for cooling and realistic evacuation plans. If only for the latter issue, it would be unconscionable to keep the public in the dark, as the residents surrounding Chernobyl were.
It appears Miami-Dade and FPL are taking the public on a ride through the same house of horrors as Glades and FPL did. While I am not sure how Governor Crist celebrates Halloween, if at all, I know he does not like government wearing a mask.
Folks just don't seem to get that their safety is at risk. What's it going to take...another 9-11?
Expansion of nuclear power is the only way to slow global warming. I think that the problem of sleeping security guards can be resolved more readily than finding another viable energy source. Do you want more coal plants ? Wind and solar is not going to meet our energy needs anytime soon. Even the founder of Greenpeace Patrick Moore has come out in favor of nuclear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsiE3Ldc8hM
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