Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Waters rising, nuclear plant unit shuts down

David Marino-Nachison - 4:05 pm

From the Associated Press: WASHINGTON — Part of a nuclear power plant was shut down late Monday while another plant — the nation’s oldest — was put on alert after waters from superstorm Sandy rose 6 feet above sea level.

One of the units at Indian Point, a plant about 45 miles north of New York City, was shut down around 10:45 p.m. because of external electrical grid issues said Entergy Corp., which operates the plant. The company said there was no risk to employees or the public, and the plant was not at risk due to water levels from the Hudson River, which reached 9 feet 8 inches and was subsiding. Another unit at the plant was still operating at full power.

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.

from the 2nd link ..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog/wp/2012/10/29/live-blog-hurricane-sandy-news/

in the one this is in reply to .. see also ..

Alert as Sandy drenches US nuclear plant

Posted 52 minutes ago

Gallery: Hurricane Sandy hits US east coast
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-29/sandy-lashes-us-east-coast/4338658

Related Story: Live coverage: Superstorm hits US
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-30/superstorm-hits-us-live-coverage/4340852

Map: United States
https://maps.google.com/?q=39.808503,-74.185118%28United+States%29&z=5

A nuclear power plant in New Jersey has declared an alert as water levels rise due to superstorm Sandy, which has ravaged the eastern United States.

The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, in Ocean County just north of the resort of Atlantic City, was already on a scheduled outage as the massive storm made landfall nearby on the Atlantic Coast.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the plant sounded an alert - one notch above the lowest of the watchdog's four categories for action levels - as the facility recorded a designated high mark for water inside.

For all the latest on the storm visit our live blog
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-30/superstorm-hits-us-live-coverage/4340852

But it said no safety concerns were reported.

"Water level is rising in the intake structure due to a combination of a rising tide, wind direction and storm surge," the commission said in a statement.

"It is anticipated water levels will begin to abate within the next several hours."

The NRC said if the flood waters continued to rise, it could affect the reactor's service water pumps, which are used for shut-down cooling and to cool the spent fuel pool.

The regulator said all plants in the storm's way were in a safe condition and that inspectors were working to verify independently that operators underwent proper procedures.

Concerns about nuclear power spiked in March 2011 in Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima plant, triggering clouds of radiation and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes - perhaps permanently.

Sandy has plunged hundreds of thousands into darkness and flooded the subway and the usually bustling streets underneath New York's iconic skyline.

AFP -- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-30/alert-as-sandy-drenches-us-nuclear-plant/4341980