While
local windbags go nuts over wind power, new problems occur at nuclear plant
only 20 miles upwind from Charlestown
My
colleague Tom Ferrio covered the
extraordinarily crazy May 4 Charlestown Town Council budget meeting. At that
meeting, some of our more unhinged local denizens proclaimed their desire to
give away town property, the $2 million parcel the town bought to block a wind
turbine project, and set aside another $2 million just in case somebody at some
time in the future might even think about putting large wind turbines in
Charlestown.
These
same Charlestown Citizens Alliance loonies were, of course, not present the
next day at the May 5 meeting in
Waterford, CT
just 20 miles west on I-95. There, Millstone Nuclear Power plant officials were
confronted by elected officials in towns neighboring the plant about recent
revelations of serious – even “willful” – breaches of
safety and security protocols.
These
recently reviewed violations were so serious that the federal EPA and state
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) called on the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to conduct a closed-door briefing for Connecticut
Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his staff "in order to
address our serious concerns related to the continued safe operation of
Millstone."
Pretty strong words coming from an environmental regulator, but of course the state DEEP is more likely to be worried about such violations than the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC’s main priority is to keep the reactors operating and the energy flowing.
Millstone’s problems are not only the steady stream of violations
concerning the safe operation of their cooling pumps, but also recently
revealed concerns about security flaws that make the plant vulnerable. Even
worse, there appear to have been deliberate acts by Millstone staff to cover up
these problems.
When a wind turbine goes bad, it might break a blade or it might
make a noise that annoys Mike Chambers or Ron Areglado.
When a nuclear power plant goes bad, you can have a radioactive hot zone of 50 miles or more
as we saw after the Fukushima power plant melted down after Japan’s 2011 earthquake.
Charlestown is only 20 miles down wind
of Millstone. Plus, as we should have learned from past accidents, when things
go bad at a nuclear power plant, they can go bad very quickly.
Officially, the NRC considers us to be in the “ingestion
pathway zone.” Just under 3 million people live within 50 miles of
Millstone.
Fukushima’s
reactors melted down when the quake knocked out their cooling pumps. Millstone’s
persistent problems are with its cooling pumps.
The
NRC cited
Millstone for a “willful” violation when Millstone changed a safety report
so that they left out information making the report, in the NRC’s terms, “not
complete and accurate.” In other words, bullshit. The report was part of
Millstone’s application for a license amendment.
I
believe it was part of its request to be allowed to use warmer ocean water to
cool its reactors. During the summer of 2012, Millstone had a two week shut-down when the waters of Long
Island Sound topped the NRC’s safety standard. The license amendment simply
increased the “safe” temperature. Not known: whether this “willful” violation
voids the license amendment.
Indeed,
the NRC may be forced to act. They have sent a notice to Millstone’s Virginia-based
owner Dominion Energy saying that the NRC is “interested
in understanding (Dominion’s) plans for restoring compliance with its licensing
basis in light of the changes … apparently made through improper implementation
… (of the change) process.”
I would hope the NRC is more than
just “interested.”
One guy who is more than just “interested” is Connecticut DEEP director Rob Klee who said he believes Millstone’s recent multiple violations present "potential significant public health and safety implications."
One guy who is more than just “interested” is Connecticut DEEP director Rob Klee who said he believes Millstone’s recent multiple violations present "potential significant public health and safety implications."
Millstone’s
two operating reactors (Unit One was shut down due to multiple equipment
failures in 1998) are Connecticut’s single greatest source of energy. None of
Rhode Island’s power comes from Millstone.
In a statement, Connecticut
Governor Malloy said Dominion "needs
to fully cooperate with federal regulators in this probe."
"Any
deviation from [NRC standards]— anything that puts residents at risk — is
simply unacceptable to me and unacceptable for the State of Connecticut."
Here’s the reaction you’ll get if you were to ask Charlestown
Town Council President Tom Gentz about the hazards to Charlestown residents if
Millstone goes bad: “Huh?”