Palisades nuclear plant shutdown (Covert, MI)

The Palisades nuclear power plant is shut down. Officials at the plant removed it from service due to what is being described as a "small leak" in the plant's safety injection and refueling water tank. That tank holds as much as 300-thousand gallons of water that is used remove heat from the reactor's core in the event of a coolant accident and to increase "shutdown safety margin." It's not known how long the troubled facility will remain out of service. Palisades has been ranked by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as one of the four worst nuclear plants in the nation.

www.wsjm.com...

I live just outside of the exclusion zone for this plant. That last sentence kind of bothers me. I wonder if thats radioactive water leaking? I also wonder if fukushima had such a system. Never heard of this safety injection system. I wonder if this has anything to do with those booms people are hearing?

I don't know about the booms, but I wonder if this would have anything to do with the radiation spike last week...

I remember reading last year that most of the nuclear power plants in the northeast and midwest are over 50 years old, so it amazes me that more of them aren't being shut down. Apparently, the cost of bringing these old plants up to code are too much, so in the future, many of them will simply be shut down and abandoned. Truly a disturbing thought.

Nuclear energy has to be the most short-sighted and dangerous way to generate electricity that man has ever come up with. Hope everything is OK up your way, and it is just a precaution to shut Palisades down.

13 flags, 3 comments!
The fact that nuclear energy these days is created in more "modern facilities" which are many times safer (supposedly), and overall its a tiny percentage that go wrong, still it sits on my stomach about as happily as deep fried concrete. Countries are in talks of reducing (or eliminating) nuclear stations, what is our dim-witted politic-puppets in charge in Australia doing? Talking about INSTALLING them!!!
For gods sake, the stupidity is baffling.

In Victoria,, we have a massive new (pointless and ridiculously expensive) 'de-salination' plant being built. A massive structure to make salty water drinkable, I'm not taking about nuclear here, this is a brand new billion dollar state of the art water facility, not even complete yet.
Guess what its doing? RUSTING! The blasted thing is already rusting up and needs a huge overhaul to fix dodgy pipework!!
And they think there is safety in nuclear?? After everything that's happening with them??
I somehow think your 4th worst leaky power station is probably better built than anything we're going to end up with!

Still, I'd suggest a precautionary holiday if I were you though Op.

Hehe. Im a trucker so im rarely home anyway. Infact i wanna get a geiger counter and go to the beach thats next to the plant.

The good thing is this plant uses fresh water for cooling, so shouldnt have quite the rust issue of your desalinization plant. But what the hell? Thats crazy...

I looked up the nrc event reports for this plant. It freakin caught on fire in the 80s, nice!

Oh, and i didnt mean to imply that i thought this caused booms. Figurrd maybe the booms caused this...

Just found this article, even has a pic of the tank. Apparently this was a planned shutdown and they knew about the leak weeks ago? Back story? Heres the kicker...five unplanned shutdowns last year. What? Omg... How is this plant profitable?
michiganradio.org...

As I said in another post they are bringing a new cooling tower online this or next week then probably another new tower this fall. Shutting down for maintance between Memorial Day and Labor Day has to be approved by the NRC thanks to Enron. The supposed radiation spike was nearly 100 miles south

My question is, Would this have even made it into the news if it weren't for Fukushima?

I just wonder how much of this is "Oh my gosh. Oh no." and how much of it is worth actual concern.

If nobody hear really knows, we really have no business having a reaction to the news. It doesn't make sense, unless we are to behave irrationally and out of fear.

My guess is that it's a small deal that is being thrown out there to attract attention, like most worthless stories, honestly. I am not saying this is worthless news. I'm saying it's probably only meant to attract attention.

reply to post by daynight42
I understand what you're saying imo most any news is susceptible to media manipulation. Since Fukushima there's not a doubt in my mind nuclear plants in distress = ratings.

With that being said there's no getting around the fact that American nuclear power plants are aging. Just like the rest of our infrastructure upgrades have been put on the back burner in favor of military spending.

Even if upgrades are made keep in mind we no longer manufacture anything, so parts for these upgrades will most likely come from China...going with the lowest bid is the capitalistic way.

I'm sure we all know how well all that crap from China works. That's probably where the Aussies got the pipe for their desalination plant. I can't get a decent manual can opener (China). Then there's the many mouse traps I've bought (China) and all I'm doing is feeding mice...threw them away and got two cats. I assure you they're not Chinese.

Maybe this one incident is a non-event, most likely we'll never know. Still there's no denying our infrastructure has been/is being neglected. Any upgrades will be done cheaply and inefficiently if at all. Profits from infrastructure upgrades can't compare to money made from war. Imo a prime example of good capitalism gone bad.

S&F for the OP.

reply to post by mikellmikell


Supposed radiation spike is about 30 miles from my house but theres no nuke plants there. I really think it realy was a glitch.

Shutdowns are important to know about though. Even if its just for the hotel rates going up for them!

Check this out. Theyre really pushing the "palisades plant is safe" bs on us now. This plant is not safe whatsoever. Also, they admitted that radioactive steam was released last year. Previously i read that it wasnt raxioactive. Hmm. m.hollandsentinel.com...

Just want to comment on the following...

The plant, though, is under investigation by a special unit of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that looks into possible wrong-doing and can make referrals to the Department of Justice. “There’s no green ooze in barrels. Homer Simpson does not work here,” Mark Savage, spokesman for the facility near South Haven, told the commissioners. “Safety at Palisades is never compromised. If there is a problem with the plant, we will shut the plant down and make repairs.”

So we have a corporation (its sole intention is to make ever increasing profits) and a "regulatory commission" (find me one that is not influenced by bribery, investment opportunities or personal interests and I'll show you a living, breathing Easter Bunny) and state officials (who are commonly found to have personal investments in corporations...)

Given all of the massive corruption throughout governance, media and corporate interests all over the world, does anyone with more than a couple of brain cells actually trust any of the parties involved in this, at all?!

At a time when trust in the authorities and corporations is at an all-time low I would be shocked to find any sane person who accepts anything any of these people say to be accurate in any way.

I dont trust them at all. Especially after this....

palisades.homestead.com...

NRC’s predecessor, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, approved an operating license for Palisades in 1967. However, Consumers Power Company (later renamed Consumers Energy Company) sued the reactor’s design and construction firms over major flaws. Operations did not actually commence until 1971, after an out-of-court settlement provided Consumers Power monetary compensation, but required little to no rectification of the design and construction errors. Around a decade ago, taking advantage of the four year delay in start up, Consumers Energy persuaded NRC to interpret its original 40 year operating license as applying from 1971 to 2011, rather than from 1967 to 2007, in effect granting a four year extension. Despite an environmental intervention, in 2007 NRC granted a 20 year license extension at Palisades, allowing operations to continue from 2011 to 2031.

Oh, heres a gem from the same site

The NRC also issued a legal violation against Palisades earlier this month, separate from its performance reviews, after a supervisor walked off in anger from his job in the plant's control room in October 2010, without seeking permission to leave or asking anyone to take over his duties. The control room is the most sensitive area of the plant, overseeing the reactor's operation. Pederson said the company has promised corrective action and could yet be fined in that case.