NRC launches special probe to investigate Oyster Creek

by: Jason Springer

Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 05:59:39 PM EDT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) launched a special investigation into a recent emergency shutdown at Oyster Creek:

Samuel J. Collins, a regional administrator with the NRC, said in a statement the performance of humans and machines during the outage need to be looked into more closely.
"While the plant was safely removed from service during the event, several equipment issues arose during the shutdown that we believe bear closer examination," he said. "Through this special inspection, we intend to gain a better understanding of these issues, including the actions taken by plant operators in response."
Among those was an electrical component failing; an emergency diesel generator taking longer than expected to start; and problems involving an isolation condenser, a component used to help cool down the reactor during shutdowns.
David Benson, a plant spokesman, said the backup generator did not perform as expected.
"We are not satisfied with the performance of one of the two diesel generators," he said. "Our expectation is for the generator to start up in seven seconds; this generator took 80 seconds."

Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear reactor in the nation and just received a new 20 year license this past April. But this isn't the only problem to crop up since then either:

Shortly after it won the new license, the plant discovered some underground pipes had been leaking tritium, a weak, radioactive form of hydrogen. The pipes were dug up and replaced, and the plant says no tritium has left the site.
The NRC plans to issue a report on its findings within 45 days of the completion of the special inspection.

So now we'll wait for the results of the special inspection and the special investigation. Oyster Creek provides about 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity, enough to power about 600,000 homes.

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Fire shuts down Oyster Creek transformer

by: Jason Springer

Mon Feb 02, 2009 at 06:58:54 AM EST

At least things seemed to work the way they were supposed to:

Exelon Nuclear says the fire was in one of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant's two main transformers.
The company says the unit automatically shut down and there was no threat to the public. No one was injured.
Plant operators declared an unusual event at 10:11 p.m. Sunday. The company says the fire was extinguished 16 minutes later and the event ended at 11:37 p.m.

Two months ago, the plant was shut down because of an electrical problem. In that case too, the automatic shut down worked as planned. The plant's license expires this April and Excelon has been trying to renew it with the Nuclear Regulatory commission for another twenty years. I can't imagine this is what they wanted as a lead in to the decision.

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Oyster Creek still shut down

by: Jason Springer

Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 05:44:21 PM EST

Not good:

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station remains shut down following a weekend problem with one of its two main electrical transformers.
Just after 9 p.m. Friday, an electrical fault occurred in one of the transformers that converts Oyster Creek's output for use on the grid that serves the region.
That caused the plant to shut down automatically.

Excelon hasn't been able to give an estimate of when the plant will be back online, but electricity traders speculated that it could take a week for the plant to return to service.

Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear reactor in the country having opened in 1969. It's license expires in April of 2009 and Excelon has been trying to renew their license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for another twenty years since 2005.

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Hearings to be held on radioactive material

by: Jason Springer

Thu Nov 30, 2006 at 07:58:36 PM EST

Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp in Newfield, Gloucester County conducted smelting and alloy production from 1940 until 2001.

The company is no longer in business, but they left a long term mark on the community: a 30-foot, low-grade radioactive rock pile. Most of the radioactive material remaining at the site consists of the slag generated during production operations and refined dust.

Now rather than clean up the whole site, Shield Alloy wants to cap the radioactive waste right where it is, even though the location was declared a Superfund Site for cleanup in 1983.

Two hearings have been scheduled in early December by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)...

The first meeting will provide an overview of the review process for the decommissioning plan -- a proposal to cap the slag pile for 1,000 years.
The second meeting will let residents hear details of the NRC's environmental review for the plan and allow residents to comment on the possible environmental impacts.

The NRC turned down the company's first proposal to leave the waste there. I hope the residents come out and talk about the elevated levels of cancer in their families and pets, the pollution on the site besides the radioactive material and the long term economic impact of losing ratables because a company that got rich off the town was to cheap to clean up their mess when they left.

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