Nine Mile Point nuclear plant shuts down - NY

SCRIBA, N.Y. — Officials at Constellation Energy are investigating a leakage in a containment structure that caused the shutdown of the Nine Mile Point Unit 2 reactor on Lake Ontario over the weekend. The Oswego Palladium-Times reports that the reactor remained shut down Sunday after a "higher-than-normal leakage" was discovered inside the facility's drywell (http://(link tracking not allowed)/qVJmf3 ). The incident was classified as an "unusual event," the lowest level of nuclear power plant emergencies.

Source

It's classified as the lowest level of nuclear emergencies, but still worth a mention.

I see this same power plant had an issue back in May. Thought it worth mentioning there is yet another issue.

"highter-than-normal leakage"?? Does that indicate that there is always "normal leakage" from the nuclear facilities? A thought that just crossed my mind when reading those words. What is considered normal leakage?

minor as you said, but its all cumulative and over time adds up to a bad time for everyone. the world needs an overhaul on nuclear power if we're going to keep it at all. but we can discuss up and down whether or not to use it, but what we can not argue is that our nuclear facilities need to be updated and better equipped

I personally think it has something to do with all the solar activity myself

Beat me to it,

Important Thread to watch be aware of.

Nothing is "normal" or low level when it comes to Nuclear as recent events have proven and especially in this type of reactor.

The unit that is affected is one of the OLDEST still functional reactors in the USA / World.

In addition to this the bit affected is:

Nine Mile Point Unit 2 remains shut down as of press time Sunday, after a “higher-than-normal leakage” was discovered inside the facility’s drywell over the weekend. The incident, classified as an “unusual event,” which is the lowest level on the scale of nuclear power plant emergency classifications, occurred at 3:22 a.m., Saturday. “We will remain shut down until we complete the necessary repairs and post maintenance testing,” said Jill Lyon, a spokeswoman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, the company that owns the two units that comprise Nine Mile Point. According to Lyon, the drywell is the containment structure that surrounds the reactor vessel and all the associated piping for the reactor. The drywell has floor drains for water to leak through, which is monitored by plant personnel. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said if there are more than 10 gallons of water per minute of unidentified leakage inside the drywell, the plant would shut down.

Sheehan added that it appears that the source of the leakage is a valve on a recirculation pump inside the structure. He explained that these large industrial pumps are used to recirculate water through the reactor. “They are going to have to take a look as to why they have this problem with this valve,” Sheehan said. “They only go in the drywell when the plant is shut down. So the last time they were in there was 14 months ago when the plant was shut down for a refueling and maintenance outage. “They won’t know and we won’t know until they get a closer look at this,”

RSOE

So an "unusual Event that being MORE than 10 gallons a minute of Unknown source of radioctive water!

Sound familiar?

This is exactly the same trigger that created until Chernobyl then Fukishima the worlds worst Nuclear Disaster, in an exact same type of old water pressure reactors, that being these valves:

The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979.

The power plant was owned and operated by General Public Utilities and Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed). It was the most significant accident in the history of the USA commercial nuclear power generating industry, resulting in the release of approximately 2.5 million curies of radioactive gases, and approximately 15 curies of iodine-131.[1]

The accident began at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system

3 Mile Island Accident Wiki

Considering this I am very optimistic this is fine, however it is worth watching very closely over the next few days.

Kind Regards,

Elf

Thanks for the input, and additional information Elf

My line of thinking is, an explosion starts from a small spark, right?

So....what's classified as "lowest level of nuclear emergencies", and "highter-than-normal leakage" is yet another thing to keep an eye on for sure.

reply to post by summer5


Very true,

Esp in an reactor that is almost an Antique,

And in the same part of the system that has caused Problems Meltdowns before.

As My link shows 10 gallons a Minute or more of Unknown source radioactive water is the level to start this "alert"

More than "unusual" to me.

Kind Regards,

Elf

The unit that is affected is one of the OLDEST still functional reactors in the USA / World.

???

Nine Mile Point unit two started up 1987 which makes it 24 years old, which means it is slightly younger than the average functional reactor in the United States. It is a BWR-5 using the mark-2 containment, which is somewhat better than the ones in Fukushima but I don't know if it has the same flaws.

So an "unusual Event that being MORE than 10 gallons a minute of Unknown source of radioctive water!

Sound familiar?

No.

This is exactly the same trigger that created until Chernobyl then Fukishima the worlds worst Nuclear Disaster, in an exact same type of old water pressure reactors, that being these valves:

Not trying to be rude but please read the wikipedia on Chernobyl and Fukushima, at the very least. The reactor type at Chernobyl was an unstable reactor design when operated at low power and was compounded by lack of containment. Poor design and operational error caused it to explode. Fukushima was caused by a loss of all power causing the plant to lose all cooling, resulting in the rods getting hot creating a hydrogen explosion, and the water boiling away to keep the pressure down. Unless this plant lost all power to all of its emergency systems then this is completely different.

I tend to be dismissive over things like this because small leaks occasionally happen which are contained. I did however become extremely concerned about Fukushima very quickly because it has lost all power and couldn't restore power in time. That's what you need to watch for, but a leak itself is not necessarily serious (a big leak is though! like Three Mile Island, especially if the cooling systems don't work for whatever reason).

Sheehan added that it appears that the source of the leakage is a valve on a recirculation pump inside the structure.

Boiling Water Reactors like Fukushima and Nine Mile Point have recirculation pumps that pump water from the bottom of the reactor back to the top.



Advanced Boiling Water Reactors have re circulation pumps attached to the reactor pressure vessel itself without a whole lot of piping so the probability of a leak is lower. Future Boiling Water Reactors have recirculation pumps completely enclosed by the reactor pressure vessel so a leak in this way cannot happen, and also do not need any electricity for cooling for the first 3 days.

Three Mile Island was a Pressurized Water Reactor with a somewhat different design, but a valve in the primary loop opened and a lot of cooling was lost. The incident was mostly caused by operator error though since they didn't allow the emergency systems to function as they were designed.

"highter-than-normal leakage"?? Does that indicate that there is always "normal leakage" from the nuclear facilities?

All nuclear reactors release a small amount of radioactivity into the environment during normal operation however the amount is extremely small - smaller than an equivalent coal power station. And nobody talks about radiation from coal because the amount is small.

But yes, when you have an enormous boiler putting out 4000 megawatts of heat with several pumps with as much power as a locomotive each, the entire thing pressurized to 2300 PSI at 600F, water will leak. It's cleaned up and none of it should reach the environment, but if water leaks at a rate greater than what is expected, then it's an indication that something is wrong hence it's best and safest to shut it down and fix the problem.

Originally posted by C0bzz
Nine Mile Point unit two started up 1987 which makes it 24 years old, which means it is slightly younger than the average functional reactor in the United States. It is a BWR-5 using the mark-2 containment, which is somewhat better than the ones in Fukushima but I don't know if it has the same flaws.

I apoligise you are right I thought the incident was in UNIT 1 not 2 unit 1 is the old reactor I was alluding to.

Watching Riots news and tickers markets closely, 1/2 working to as did thread.

This is exactly the same trigger that created until Chernobyl then Fukishima the worlds worst Nuclear Disaster, in an exact same type of old water pressure reactors, that being these valves:

Originally posted by C0bzz
Not trying to be rude but please read the wikipedia on Chernobyl and Fukushima, at the very least. The reactor type at Chernobyl was an unstable reactor design when operated at low power and was compounded by lack of containment. Poor design and operating error caused it to explode. Fukushima was caused by a loss of all power causing the plant to lose all cooling, resulting in the rods getting hot creating a hydrogen explosion, and the water boiling away. Unless this plant lost all power then this is completely different.

I was not mentioning Fukishima or Chernobyl, I did my thesis on Environmental Engineering on Chernobyl, I do know the event, I was mentioning Three Mile Island meltdown in the US. Please see the use of the word "until" in my quoted text.

Sheehan added that it appears that the source of the leakage is a valve on a recirculation pump inside the structure.

Originally posted by C0bzz
Boiling Water Reactors like Fukushima and Nine Mile Point have recirculation pumps that pump water from the bottom of the reactor back to the top. Pressurized Water Reactors do not have this design so comparisons with Three Mile Island and this are totally invalid.

I have two cars outside. One uses an Limited Edition HD i Diesel injection, that is all of the system is under High Pressure, fuel at point of compression, even the oil and water cooling system.

Also a Petrol Car, Very little pressure in either the oil system, some in the ignition chamber as injected, but nothing special. Different fuel. last time checked pressures about 48% less than in compression chambers of the diesel. Never checked the water pressure differences, may do later now as interest piqued lol.

On the weekend was helping a friends friends with an VW AIR cooled old engine in an camper.

NO water at all. no pressure.

What do all thse have to do with what I am saying?

Engines running on any of them, and all so different in the "cooling" systems pressures etc, even different fuels in the engine, some lit by spark, some by crushing till explodes,

Put the VW engine in an small room with no air circulating, undo ever soo slightly the radiator cap on either the petrol or diesel, guess what happens,

Engine overheats and fails, melts.

The valves in pressurised or not if not working properly have this effect.

This led to 9 Mile Island.

I am rightly concerned imho.

Kind Regards,

Elf