Storm poses little risk to Florida's 3 nuclear power plants
St. Petersburg Times, Fla. --Sep. 4
Sep. 4--A coastal location fully exposed to hurricane-force winds might not be the first place you'd think to build a nuclear power plant.
Nuclear plants are typically built near oceans, rivers or lakes because they
require immense quantities of water to cool a plant's reactor core to prevent a
meltdown.
The plants are completely safe this weekend, the utilities insist. And even
critics of the nuclear industry say hurricane winds pose little danger to the
reactors' containment buildings, although they warn that other risks remain.
As a precautionary measure, FPL began a controlled, 11-hour shutdown Friday
night of the two 839-megawatt nuclear generating units at its St. Lucie plant,
not far from where Hurricane Frances is expected to make landfall.
FPL spokeswoman Rachel Scott said the utility sees no immediate need to shut
down the two 693-megawatt nuclear generating units at Turkey Point, which she
said are expected to remain at full power.
Similarly, Progress Energy doesn't expect to shut down its 838-megawatt
nuclear unit in Crystal River, although the company said it is continuing to
monitor the situation.
FPL's nuclear reactors are housed in containment buildings made of
steel-reinforced concrete several feet thick, Scott said, adding that they are
built to withstand hurricane winds of up to 195 mph. Progress Energy's Crystal
River plant is built to withstand sustained hurricane winds of up to 179 mph and
tornado winds of up to 300 mph, Progress spokesman Mac Harris said. They also
are built to withstand the impact of wind-blown projectiles, including a utility
pole traveling at 150 mph, he said.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned
Scientists in Washington, D.C., has been a frequent critic of the nuclear power
industry and what he believes are its lax safety and security standards.
But Lochbaum agreed that hurricanes pose little risk to the fortified
structures housing Florida's nuclear reactors. He said such storms don't pose as
great a danger as earthquakes do to nuclear plants in California.
FPL's Turkey Point plant suffered significant damage during Hurricane Andrew,
but the structures housing the nuclear generating units remained intact,
Lochbaum said.
While residents living in the projected path of Frances can expect power
outages, "I wouldn't be overly concerned about nuclear power plants not
surviving this thing," he said.
However, Lochbaum cautioned that one hurricane-related risk facing a nuclear
plant lies in the onsite diesel generators that are used for backup power in the
event that the off-site electricity powering a shutdown reactor's safety systems
is lost.
Even when a reactor is shut off, the fuel inside the reactor must still be
cooled with water. If the diesel generators fail, "there's not much
backup," Lochbaum said.
FPL and Progress Energy said their nuclear reactors minimize this risk by
keeping redundant backup generators on hand.
"One of the specific design requirements is to take a dead-on (hit) from
a hurricane," Harris said.
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