CBS NEWS Reported Yesterday:
A nuclear reactor at Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point facility in Miami-Dade was shut down after a control rod got stuck in its core during a refueling process. According to an email sent out Friday by FPL spokesman Tom Veenstra a mechanical issue with the rod's drive mechanism occurred and workers were unable to withdraw it from the core.
Control rods are lowered into the core to absorb neutrons and shut down the nuclear process. When the reactor is ready to be brought back on line the rods are lifted.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Roger Hannah told CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald a break down in a control rod mechanism is very rare.
"This is certainly not something that you see every day,'' said Hannah.
In a statement on Friday former Turkey Point employee Thomas Saporito, a persistent critic of FPL's nuclear safety issues, said one of his biggest concerns about the facility is the age of the reactor units..."
6 comments:
This should have been front page Herald news, but it was buried in the business section. I guess the "dancing with the stars" race car driver's trial, which was on the front page, was more important than a problem with our local nuclear reactor. When the spokespeople say "This almost never happens.", the problem is, it should NEVER happen.
I agree. What is wrong with the Herald? I would be willing to pay for content for a newspaper but they seem intent on being something else. We need a newspaper not a lifestyle guide.
Arrrrrgh!
The story broke on the "Breaking News" section of the Herald website. I went back to check for updates about a hour later... and the story was gone... I went to another site that nuclear employees use, and the link was there.
So, I went back to the Herald to look for the front door and it was still not under breaking news or local. Finally I did a search for it and it came up in their search engine. The comment section obviously had some folks posting at the beginning that knew something about the nuke industry.
The on-line edition of the Herald completely missed today’s announcement by City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and FP&L of a planned “Energy Smart Miami Initiative” that was reported in the South Florida Business Journal. The $200 million program funded by federal stimulus money calls for purchasing 300 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for FP&L’s fleet servicing Miami-Dade and the purchase of 1 million wireless “smart meters” for FPL customers in Miami-Dade. It appears Manny has abandoned hopes of an appointment in Obama’s administration and has started house hunting near FP&L’s corporate headquarters in North Palm Beach.
"(Mouthpiece) told . . . The Miami Herald a break down in a control rod mechanism is very rare."
Maybe The Herald's flub of this story, as with so many others recently has to do with their own meltdown:
From marketwatch.com at 5p on April 20th:
"Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. said Monday it's been warned that it could be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange unless it can lift its market capitalization to $75 million within 18 months."
The stock's at 59 cents a share.
Such a shame. 19 Pulitzer Prizes. The flagship of the McClatchy chain. Home to some great reporters and columnists. It's now a shell -- the building that housed all that energy just a billboard for a crappy cola.
If you want to get it out of the business section, write a letter to the editor about it in addition to blogging. So the question is: What happened? Is the unit still down? How long will it take to repair? What's involved in repairing it? Do they even have the replacement parts or do they have to be fabricated? What are the reoccurring safety issues related to this plant built in 1972? The public has a right to know!
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