On Jan. 9, a freak storm dumped a record rainfall on central - TopicsExpress



          

On Jan. 9, a freak storm dumped a record rainfall on central Floridas Treasure Coast, inundating the St. Lucie nuclear power plant...storm drains failed, and 50,000 gallons of water flooded the plants Unit 1 reactor auxiliary building through improperly sealed electrical passages, disabling core cooling pumps. Had the reactor tripped during that storm, all of the emergency core cooling pumps would have been submerged. Under that scenario, after 24 hours, the plant would not achieve a safe and stable condition and reactor core would be damaged, unless emergency recovery action succeeded, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission notice of violation against the St. Lucie plant owner, Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), a subsidiary of NextEra Energy. The NRC notified FPL on Nov. 19 that it would be subject to increased safety inspections because of the violations. The incident surprised and jarred the NRC, which has made flooding threats to U.S. reactors a top regulatory priority following the 2011 tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Walls of water sweeping through the plant on Japans east coast wiped out first- and second-line systems for bringing reactors to a safe shutdown, leading to an explosion of leaking hydrogen gas and three reactor meltdowns. Following the Fukushima crisis, the NRC directed U.S. nuclear plant operators to make walkdown plant inspections to check for flooding vulnerabilities. FPL hired a contractor for the task, and following its inspection, assured the commission that Unit 1 was protected, the NRC said. The walkdown inspection did not detect the missing seals in electrical conduits that were installed through the auxiliary building wall more than 30 years ago... More...
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 21:36:47 +0000

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