Could it happen at Indian Point?

July

An earthquake in Japan that killed at least nine people and hurt more than 900 others immediately sent a few ripples through the Lower Hudson Valley because it also caused a leak of 315 gallons of radiated water from the biggest nuclear power plant in that country.

The ripples reached Albany and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo used the news to publicly push again for tighter relicensing regs for Indian Point. He joined Westchester County Executive Andy Spano’s legal battle on that score last week.

Cuomo said basically that this is reminder that we need to think about a whole menu of issues when it comes to allowing the nuclear plant to continue operating for another 20 years.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials say the nation’s nuclear plants are all designed to survive earthquakes as strong as any that have hit an individual area – in Indian Point’s case that’s about 6.1 on the Richter scale.

If you’re betting odds here, figure this: according to documents that were part of the record when the plant was reviewed for its original approval, there have been two such incidents here since 1737 – that year and 1884.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 8:25 pm by Greg Clary.
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4 Responses to “Could it happen at Indian Point?”

Artisan33 July 17th, 2007 at 6:54 am
Newsies love a good talking heads battle, to them it’s the bread of life. But it is generally overdrawn position-mongering, and does not help people. The Cuomo me-too-nuke gambit is now 5 days old, and an earthquake happens 12,000 miles away. So what do we get from the usually level-headed Mr. Clary?

In the Robert F. Kennedy style, agendists will reach out to claim every news item corroborates their agenda. For those waiting year after year, seeking bogus excuse after bogus excuse, a Richter scale 7 quake in Japan “proves” some pre-cooked point, one they were already waiting to spring on us.

As a matter of fact, the Japan quake proves the opposite.

The Japanese nuclear plant suffered trivial damage, a routine transformer fire, and spilled 6 oil drums of radiated water. These are inconsequential events, and prove the robustness of the Japanese plant under severe shaking.

Now its the agendists’ turn to say “Yes, .... but it could have been MUCH WORSE”.

Well, that statement, while being true in a technical, statistical sense, is imaginary agendizing. We could have also suffered a tsunami, multiple asteroid strikes and a volcano at the same time.

But it didn’t happen.
So, go ahead, Greg, tie it all together for us.

Should it make us worry?
Or is that just a well-worn agitprop non-sequitur?

I say it should make us understand that while thousands of buildings collapsed utterly in Japanese quake, the nuke plant suffered only trivial damage.

Why?

Because it was built specifically to withstand such events.
Just like Indian Point.
Steve C. July 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am
I myself have an issue with a waste material that no one knows how do deal with properly.
There are so many alternate and safer methods. Such as Fusion.
http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/2005-06/v18n2/05.shtml

The only real downside to fusion is—“There is also a possibility that tritium – a radioactive form of hydrogen with a half life of 12 years, used in fusion reactors – could accidentally escape into the atmosphere. However, even a 1GW reactor contains less than a gram of tritium at a time, and good reactor design can ensure that only a tiny amount of tritium would escape in the worst imaginable accident.”

http://www.atomicinsights.com/AI_03-04-05.html
James Aach July 17th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know specifics of the Japanese quake, but I do have some understanding of the nuclear industry, having worked in the US version for 20+ years. Like all energy sources, nuclear power has its good and bad points. It is predictable is that combining the phrase “nuclear power” with either “accident” or “radiation” will get people’s attention regardless of the extent of the event or the amount of radiation leaked.

As a society, I think we’ll make better decisions about our energy future if we first understand our energy present. Few outside the energy industry have any realistic perspective on how large scale electric production works. This is particularly true of nuclear energy – there’s little out there in plain English that describes the technology, people and politics at work in atomic power. My book “Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power” showcases the real world of nuclear energy as well as following a plant as it heads for disaster. The book is available at no cost online at http://RadDecision.blogspot.com (see the many positive reader reviews at the homepage), and is now in paperback (from which I get no royalties) at online retailers. “Rad Decision” has also been endorsed by Stewart Brand, noted futurist and founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.
artisan33 July 18th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I spent a slow Saturday downloading and reading Mr. Aach’s book.

In the book, the protagonist, a Soviet “sleeper”, with false credentials, lived undercover in the power industry for 20 years before his eventual activation.

He trips a nuke plant by drooping a copper cable over a transmission tower via the use of four large helium balloons. (credible?).

The plant is unable to repower itself , because previously, on his regular rounds as an operator, he has somehow entered the locked diesel backup generator building (how?), removed certain key parts from the generator (how?),
and then closed the generator back up so expertly that nobody knew, or noticed, (again…how?).

I wrote to Mr. Aach later that day, and asked him how many Soviet sleepers he imagined still lived undercover in the USA without defecting to American life. He failed to answer.

I asked him why his fictional Fairmount plant had only the single source of offsite power, instead of the several that most plants have, thus allowing the balloon trick to work. He did not answer.

I inquired just how an operator, who is not trained in maintenance procedures, and does not have access to parts,or to necessary tools, was able to know just how to sabotage the diesels. I asked why the diesels had no tamper switches, (as do most plant equipment). I asked how he was able to gain access, with no permit to be there (most vital rooms are key-card +password entry protected), and I asked him how he was able to remain in the diesel house , without authorization, long enough to do a tough mechanical evolution, and then cover up his tracks, and get back to the control room in time for coffee.

Again, no answer.

Mr. Aach’s novel, although mentioning some internal nuclear plant realities, would not be possible in the post 9-11 regime of keycard/handprint/password protected, buddy-system high security in force today at all US nuclear plants.

His fictional Fairmont plant is intentionally designed weak by Aach, so his novel can occur.

So his novel is nice, but clearly obsolete.

Now a word about comment spam.
Aach generously gives away his novel on Blogspot, and that is to his credit. I enjoyed it.

I am not so clear as to the relevancy of his self-advertisement post appearing in Greg Clary’s blog space, in a topic thread about Kashiwagazi & Indian Point.

If Aach has some thoughts about any lessons Kashiwagazi has for IPEC, I invite his return here to share them… (secure all your barrels maybe).

Otherwise, its pure comment spam, and an offensive intrusion.

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