Study to determine impact of nuke plant

After years of rumours and speculation, Bruce Power announced yesterday it will begin an environmental assessment on the impacts of a nuclear power station in Haldimand County.

Bruce Power has optioned 800 hectares within the Lake Erie Industrial Park from US Steel Canada Inc. and is considering building two reactors to generate between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts of electricity.

The company says it also is exploring other clean energy sources such as hydrogen, solar and wind that could complement a nuclear plant at the site.

“We’re more than a nuclear operator,” said chief executive officer and president of Bruce Power Duncan Hawthorne. “We see the logic in synergizing these energies for a stronger economy, so we can manage energy demands and sustain the environment.”

Despite Bruce Power’s steps yesterday, the Ontario Ministry of Energy maintains its position that expansion of nuclear generation will occur at existing nuclear sites, not new ones.

“But in some ways, Haldimand is a better site than any existing nuclear sites,” Hawthorne said. “If you look around, you might not find a better site in Canada.”

Nuke plant faulted for using janitors as guards

A decision by management of Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear power plant to have custodial workers stand in as guards has drawn a sharp rebuke from the country’s nuclear regulatory authority.

* Safety check forces Swedish nuke plant shutdown (21 Oct 08)
* Nuke scare ’caused by shaving cream’ (9 Jun 08)

For a week in early October, members of a contract cleaning crew stood guard along sections of the plant’s perimeter fencing during repairs to the plant’s alarm system.

Sweden’s Radiation Safety Authority (Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten – SSM) criticized OKG, the plant’s operators, for violating its own internal safety practices by using untrained workers to guard the facility and for failing to document the break with standard operation procedures.

“OKG’s decision to use non-security-trained personnel violates the company’s internal procedures. It is particularly serious since the routine deviation has been going on for a long time,” the agency said in its report.

SSM added that the incident “could be a sign of inadequate safety culture with respect to the attitude toward physical protection” of the facility.

“The most serious aspect is that they made a decision for which no documentation can be found. And that they chose to break with internal procedures in this undocumented decision doesn’t make it any better,” said Stig Isaksson, an official from SSM’s division for control and inspection, to the TT news agency.

“Decisions on security measures must be documented so that one can find out what has been decided and on what grounds.”

In its report, SSM suggests a number of measures to help OKG correct the problems. Specifically, the investigation calls on the agency to keep a close eye on the company to ensure it maintains a high-quality safety culture.

Critics, activists unlikely to deter nuke plant

Don Gillispie is confident he can do what Warren Buffett couldn’t: Build a nuclear power plant in Idaho.

The retired nuclear industry executive came to Idaho in 2006 to build a new generation reactor to help jump start the industry where he spent his career. But his dream has hit several snags along the way.

This year, he moved the proposed plant across the Snake River to Elmore County from Owyhee County. He angered local residents in a fiery June 16 public meeting in Glenns Ferry where one anti-nuclear activist was arrested for trespassing and some longtime residents felt insulted. He also has attracted the opposition of the Snake River Alliance, one of Idaho’s most vocal environmental groups.

As part of his company’s annual report recently, independent auditors expressed concerns on whether he even has enough money to continue.

But Gillispie remains undaunted. He has applied to rezone the land for his proposed plant in rural Hammett and hearings are scheduled in October and November before the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Committee. He’s still confident he can secure loans for billions of dollars, run the regulatory gantlet and build a nuclear plant in Idaho.

“I’m a very persistent person,” Gillispie said. Anti-nuclear activists are “not going to run me off.”

Buffett’s subsidiary, MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Company, pulled the plug on its proposed nuclear plant near Payette after deciding it would cost too much to be economically feasible. Gillispie faces the same realities, along with questions about his personality and credibility.

To his supporters, Gillispie is a visionary crusader for nuclear power with integrity. To his opponents, he is an arrogant promoter who is spreading false information about his proposed plant and nuclear power.

To succeed, he may have to convince Idahoans not only that nuclear power is safe but that he’s the man to build here. Idaho Republican Sen. Curt McKenzie of Nampa, co-chairman of the Legislature’s interim committee on energy, said he wants to hear more about the project but that lawmakers are supportive of nuclear power.

“People want to be reassured,” McKenzie said. “They want to understand how the process works and how it’s going to affect the community.”

2nd nuke plant in Colo. weighed

An Idaho-based company is in the early stages of looking at possibly building a nuclear power plant in southeastern Colorado, the second such project being discussed in the state.

Alternate Energy Holdings is negotiating a contract with the owners of 26,000 acres located 3 miles south of Boone to study the prospect of building a nuke plant on the site, said Don Gillispie, the company’s chairman.

The land and water-rights owners are represented by Colorado Springs real-estate broker Thorne Davis. The site is being called the Colorado Energy Park.

Boulder environmentalist Leslie Glustrom said Alternate Energy can expect to face “fierce opposition” if it moves forward with the plan to build a nuclear power plant.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Colorado’s second-largest utility, is studying whether it would be feasible to build a nuclear plant on a 16,000-acre site in Prowers County near Holly.

Workers investigate leaky pipe at Wash. nuke plant

The Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant remains shut down as workers there investigate why a pipe leaked hydraulic liquid.

The reactor shut itself down Thursday afternoon when monitors on the turbine generators sensed low oil pressure. A fitting on a metal pipe carrying hydraulic liquid leaked.

Energy Northwest spokesman Brad Peck said Friday the plant will not restart until crews understand why the fitting leaked and make the necessary repairs.

He says there’s no prediction as to when that will be, but company officials don’t expect the plant to be down for an extended outage.

The power plant had been operating continuously for 383 days. The plant began operating in 1984.

Nuke plant leak leads to indefinite shutdown of Miami reactor

Nuke plant leak leads to indefinite shutdown of Miami reactor One of the two nuclear reactors at Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point plant near Miami has been taken off-line because of a leak, according to the Miami Herald. Roger Hannah, spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the problem was caused by a [...]

Uppin’ Atom!

McCain said that his love affair with nuclear power began when he encountered nuclear ships and submarines in the Navy. “I knew it was safe then, I know it’s safe now,” he said. However, the backdrop for his nuclear-safety claim was less than ideal. The nuke plant McCain was touring has been the site of a number of nuclear accidents: one reactor had a partial meltdown in 1966 and briefly caught fire this May. Another reactor leaked in 2005, temporarily shutting down the plant.