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Concerns over nuclear plant health safety are genuine - The Mercury Opinion: Pottstown, PA and The Tri County areas of Montgomery, Berks and Chester Counties (pottsmerc.com)
Jason Kish's November 21 letter misses the point I made about Potassium Iodide (KI) pills.
I wasn't referring to the effectiveness of KI pills protecting the thyroid gland from a concentration of radioactive iodine released in a nuclear plant disaster. The myth I referred to is the false assumption made by many that KI pills are the magic protector in the event of an accident or terrorist attack at Limerick Nuclear Plant, when in reality, KI pills would only protect one gland from one radionuclide.
That inaccurate assumption is made because when handing out KI pills, the public is not provided with full disclosure of all the radionuclides that would be released in a nuclear disaster, for which KI pills will not protect us. It's time to tell the whole truth .
KYW Philadelphia - Limerick Nuclear Power Plant to Undergo Major Facelift
The Limerick nuclear power plant in Montgomery County is about to undergo a major facelift. Improvements the company says are designed to increase the amount of electricity the plant puts out.
The first phase of the upgrade or in industry terms “uprate” involves installing equipment to get better readings and allow the plant to operate closer to its legal capacity. Exelon officials say that could yield an improvement of up to two percent.
Limerick communications manager Joe Szafran says the industry is focused on getting as much electricity as it can from the reactors that are out there and doing it more efficiently:
Clearing the air: TMI must keep area officials informed | Our Views & Yours -
It was just more than 30 years ago when no one noticed that a valve had opened in Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 reactor allowing reactor coolant to escape.
That mechanical failure was followed by a series of bad decisions that led not only to the fuel core starting to melt but also to detectable radiation being released into the air and water.
It was the worst nuclear power plant accident in the United States.
There were many issues and lessons learned. We thought one of them was the need for honesty and transparency from the owners of the nuclear facility.
Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh was in office for just 72 days when the call came about the accident. In 1999, he offered reflections on what happened as events unfolded.
One of the things he said was:
“The credibility of the utility, in particular, did not fare well. It first seemed to speak with many voices, and then with none at all. On the first day, it made its debut by seeking to minimize the incident — assuring us that ‘everything is under control’ when we later learned it wasn’t, and that ‘all safety equipment functioned properly’ when we later learned it didn’t.”
And even when company technicians found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the island had climbed above normal, the company neglected to include that information in its statement to the public.
Nuclear Reactor Stops After 'Unusual Event' - Pittsburgh News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh
Valve Leak Stopped, No Radioactive Release Reported At Beaver Valley
SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. -- A leak in a valve at a nuclear reactor in Shippingport, Beaver County, has been resolved and no radioactive release was reported.
The leak in the Beaver Valley Power Station's No. 2 nuclear reactor was discovered at about 3 a.m. Tuesday. It was resolved within an hour.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared the incident an "unusual event," the least of four emergency classifications.
A spokesman for the NRC told Channel 4 Action News that the plant has been shut down for maintenance since October, and a valve was accidentally left open while the cooling system was being taken out of service, which caused water to flow into the pressurized relief tank.
Gov unhappy over TMI plant’s wait to disclose leak - Somerset - Daily American
Gov. Ed Rendell is steamed over a five-hour wait before officials at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant told state officials about a radiation leak.
Rendell’s letter sent to top Exelon Corp. executives said it is “totally unacceptable” that plant officials waited so long to report Saturday’s accident.
The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant exposed employees to small amounts of radiation.
The Associated Press: Pipe-cutting led to radiation at Pa. nuke plant
Radioactive dust unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers during weekend maintenance at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and officials on Monday were trying to determine exactly how and why it happened.
The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant — the site of the nation's worst nuclear power plant disaster — exposed a dozen employees to radiation, but the public was in no danger, plant officials and government regulators said.
Plant officials likened workers' maximum exposure to the equivalent of two medical X-rays, while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the workers were exposed to a small fraction of the annual federal regulatory limit.
Associated Press: NRC investigating radiation at Three Mile Island
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sending investigators to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a small amount of radiation was detected there.
About 150 employees were sent home Saturday afternoon after the radiation was detected at the central Pennsylvania plant.
Officials say there is no public health risk.
Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for a cause of the release. She says the radiation was quickly contained.
Tests showed the contamination was confined to surfaces inside the building.
Nuke plant may be cited for violations | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA
PPL Corp.’s Susquehanna nuclear station in Salem Township failed to ensure two staff members met medical requirements, an inspection of the power plant found. The company could be cited for the “apparent violations” and receive additional future scrutiny, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Friday.
The NRC, which performed the inspection, found that two senior reactor operators failed to meet the medical prerequisites for their individual licenses. One operator worked after failing an eye examination, PPL spokesman Joe Scopelliti said. The other worked for about three months after the deadline for a biennial medical exam had expired.
Feds extends Shippingport nuke licenses 20 years - News National & World, News Watch - Vindy.com, The Vindicator
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the operating license for two nuclear reactors in western Pennsylvania by 20 years each.
The NRC extended the licenses Thursday after a series of reviews an inspections at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Beaver Valley Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors in Shippingport, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
The original 40-year operating license for Unit 1 expires in January 2016 while Unit 2’s license runs until May 2027. Those licenses now run until 2036 and 2047, respectively.
The Unit 1 reactor went online in 1976 and Unit 2 in 1987.
Three Mile Island renewed for another 20 years - The York Daily Record
Read the release that details how TMI will operate for an additional 20 years
* Record Tracker blog: More on TMI's renewal, including links to documents.
* York Town Square blog: Three Mile Island emergency indelibly written into memories.
Thirty years after Three Mile Island Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown, a federal agency has approved its sister reactor to operate for an additional 20 years.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating license Thursday for TMI Unit 1 in Dauphin County. The new license will expire April 19, 2034.
The reactor's original 40-year license was
Read TMI's response to landing license renewal.
set to run out April 19, 2014.
TimesOnline.com: Group seeks delay of Shippingport nuclear plant’s relicensing decision
A Pittsburgh-based energy advocacy group wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay a final decision on the licensing renewal process for Beaver Valley nuclear reactor Units 1 and 2, concerned about corrosion in a reactor containment liner.
“We’re not optimistic, frankly,” David Hughes, executive director of Citizen Power, said Thursday. “Not because we don’t believe our concerns don’t have merit, but we’re not confident with the NRC.”
A final decision had been expected Monday. But Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman, said Friday that timetable has been pushed back, as the NRC plans to release another report on the liner issue. A final decision could now come in early November, Sheehan said.
History is on the side of Akron-based FirstEnergy, owner of the reactors, and against Citizen Power. According to NRC records, a license renewal request has never been refused, with more than half of the 104 reactors across the country seeking license renewals in the last decade.
And the process cleared a big hurdle last week, with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards recommending the license renewal.
Licensing renewal
Getting There: SHA takes on another big nuclear move - From roads to rails to runways, Michael Dresser tracks transportation - baltimoresun.com
Fresh from its recent move of a giant transformer to the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant across Harford County last month, the State Highway Administration plans to take on another oversize move next week.
On Tuesday, the first of two million-pound steam generators will be taken off a barge at Port Deposit in Cecil County to begin an almost three-week journey to the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility outside Harrisburg. The next day, a second 510-ton generator is expected to arrive.
For both humongous cargoes, the first legs of their journey will take them over the roads of Cecil County to the Pennsylvania state line. The equipment will first be transported along Route 222 to the former Bainbridge Naval Training Facility. From that staging area, they will be moved starting Sept. 13 along Route 276, through the roundabout at Route 273, then up U.S. 1 to Pennsylvania.
NRC - NRC Issues Final Safety Evaluation Report for Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant License Renewal
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its final safety evaluation report (SER) for the proposed renewal of the operating licenses for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2, and concluded that there are no open items that would preclude license renewal for an additional 20 years of operation.
The report documents the results of the NRC staff’s review of the license renewal application and site audits of the plant’s aging management programs to address the safety of plant operations during the period of extended operation. It represents the culmination of NRC’s comprehensive review of the application and inspection of the plant to verify license renewal implementation is consistent with the application. Overall, the results show that the applicant has identified actions that have been or will be taken to manage the effects of aging in the appropriate safety systems, structures and components of the plant and that their functions will be maintained during the period of extended operation.
Issuing the final SER is a significant milestone in the license renewal review process. This process proceeds along two tracks – one for review of safety issues and another for environmental issues. The SER marks the completion of the NRC staff’s safety review that is published and subsequently reviewed and publicly discussed by the agency’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). The staff concluded its environmental review in March of this year when it issued the final supplemental environmental impact statement.
LancasterOnline.com:News:Tritium found at Peach Bottom
Levels of tritium six times higher than federal standards were identified at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta earlier this week.
Exelon Nuclear reported Friday that tritium had been discovered in a localized area on the nuclear plant's property by plant workers performing environmental monitoring.
The tritium, which at high levels has been linked to cancer, was identified Wednesday from a sample taken Monday.
The highest sample concentration showed tritium levels of approximately 123,000 picocuries per liter of water, a news release from Exelon said. A picocurie is one-trillionth of a curie, a measurement of radioactivity.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standards allow no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in the environment.
"This is not a public or employee health and safety issue, but we are committed to being open about the status of our plant operations," Peach Bottom site vice president Bill Maguire said in the news release.
Three more "special exposure cohorts" for EEOICPA | Frank Munger's Atomic City Underground | knoxnews.com
The Labor Dept. today released information on three more employee groups with "special exposure cohort" designations, which should make it easier for them to gain compensation under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
In statements distributed to the news media, the Labor Dept. said it had notified the employees or their survivors of the designation, which includes a "presumption" that workplace explosure caused their illness if they were diagnosed with any of the 22 specified cancers.
The newly designated special exposure cohorts were:
Three Mile Island reactor gets environment OK | Markets | Markets News | Reuters
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed the environmental part of the license renewal proceeding for Exelon Corp's (EXC.N) 786-megawatt Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania, the NRC said in a release Friday.
The NRC concluded there were no environmental impacts that would preclude the reactor's license renewal for an additional 20 years of operation.
The current license for Three Mile Island 1 expires April 19, 2014. A new license would extend the reactor's operating life until 2034.
Report: VA errors caused radiation burns - UPI.com
A doctor at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration hospital was off target on most of more than 100 patients he treated for prostate cancer, records showed.
Dr. Gary Kao has left the hospital after botching 92 of the 112 procedures involving the implantation of radioactive metal "seeds" in the prostate glands of patients, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The newspaper said the seeds wound up instead in the rectums, bladders and other healthy organs of the patients, sometimes causing painful radiation burns or other side effects.
Kao's lawyer disputed The Times' account of the six-year span but the newspaper said he practiced in an environment in which there was no in-house peer review of the doctors and was allowed to alter surgical paperwork without any objection from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
"I'm not easily shaken," said Dr. Leon S. Malmud, chairman of a nuclear commission advisory committee, "But this is a very anxiety-provoking story."
Planned nuke reactor might not be built | Wilkes-Barre News | The Times Leader
PPL Corp. might sell the Bell Bend nuclear reactor it’s hoping to build in Salem Township if it can’t secure enough federal nuclear loan guarantees, company chief Jim Miller told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday,
Joe Scopelliti, the spokesman for the two-reactor Susquehanna nuclear plant that PPL operates in the township, confirmed Miller made the comments. But the spokesman said the comments might have been taken out of context “a bit” in The Energy Daily newsletter.
The publication reported that “the license would be good for 40 years and that if PPL decided not to proceed with a new reactor, the license (according to Miller) ‘could be sold to someone who might want to use it.’”
LancasterOnline.com:News:NRC alleges 2 violations at Peach Bottom
A former reactor operator at the Peach Bottom nuclear plant deliberately failed to report a drunk-driving arrest, according to an investigation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In a second apparent violation of nuclear requirements, the NRC said a former maintenance supervisor at the plant who was given unescorted access privileges failed to report that he had been dishonorably discharged from the military.
A letter noting the apparent violations was sent to Peach Bottom owner Exelon on June 5. Both alleged violations followed probes by the NRC's Office of Investigations.
In the investigation of the reactor operator, the NRC said it was determined the operator deliberately failed to promptly report his drunk-driving arrest and criminal charges as required.
Exelon plans nuclear unit uprates to add about 1,500 MW by 2017
Exelon has begun a series of nuclear power plant uprates that will add between 1,300 MW and 1,500 MW of generating capacity at its existing fleet of nuclear units over the next eight years, the company said Friday. The first of the uprates, totaling about 38 MW, was confirmed last week following upgrades at Exelon's Quad Cities plant near Cordova, Illinois. Uprate projects, some of which require US Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, improve efficiency and increase electricity output of nuclear units through upgrades to plant equipment, Chicago-based Exelon said. The projects take advantage of new production and measurement technologies, new materials and experience from decades of nuclear power operations, the company said. Uprate efforts are underway at Exelon's Limerick and Peach Bottom nuclear plants in Pennsylvania, and the Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities plants in Illinois. Those are expected to produce nearly 25% of the added capacity. The remainder of capacity would come from uprates at nine other plants beginning in 2010 and ending in 2017.
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