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Rose Siding

(32,623 posts)
Tue Oct 30, 2012, 08:06 AM Oct 2012

"Unusual Event" at Oldest US Nuclear Power Plant Upgraded to an "Alert"

...The oldest U.S. nuclear power plant, New Jersey’s Oyster Creek, was already out of service for scheduled refueling. But high water levels at the facility, which sits along Barnegat Bay, prompted safety officials to declare an “unusual event” around 7 p.m. About two hours later, the situation was upgraded to an “alert,” the second-lowest in a four-tiered warning system.

Conditions were still safe at Oyster Creek, Indian Point and all other U.S. nuclear plants, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees plant safety.

A rising tide, the direction of the wind and the storm’s surge combined to raise water levels in Oyster Creek’s intake structure, the NRC said. The agency said that water levels are expected to recede within hours and that the plant, which went online in 1969 and is set to close in 2019, is watertight and capable of withstanding hurricane-force winds.

The plant’s owner, Exelon Corp., said power was also disrupted in the station’s switchyard, but backup diesel generators were providing stable power, with more than two weeks of fuel on hand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/nuclear-power-plants-prepare-to-shut-down-if-storm-sends-water-wind-levels-too-high/2012/10/29/e8e5dc6e-2226-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html


Indian Point was shut down and no trouble was reported there.
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