Nuclear Plant Stable After Explosion

WCBS ^ | 06 April 2007 | CBS

[burzum]

(CBS) WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. An electrical fault and fire in a transformer yard forced the automatic shutdown Friday of the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant, officials said.

The fire, which was quickly extinguished, was outside the nuclear area of the plant and there was no release of radiation, said Diane Screnci of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"The plant is stable and reacted normally," she said. "There's no impact on public health and safety."

Nevertheless, the plant, which is on the Hudson River in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of New York City, declared an "unusual event," the lowest of several safety alert classifications, Screnci said. The declaration required Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of Indian Point, to notify the governments of the surrounding counties.

Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said a fire in the transformer is among the events that trigger an automatic shutdown of a nuclear plant.

[burzum]

<sarc>What a great headline! Everyone run for the woods! We're all going to DIIEEE<sarc>

The media wouldn't be trying to scare everyone into a anti-nuclear fervor over something relatively minor would they? Would they have written the same headline over a story about a gas plant transformer catching fire? Or a hydroelectric plant? Or any component of a wind turbine?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping for future.

[unkus]

The MSM do that? No way. They are honest brokers of the truth. N O T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[StormEye]

"An electrical fault and fire in a transformer yard forced the automatic shutdown Friday of the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant, officials said."

In other words, it had nothing to do with the reactor in any way; but we needed a "scare headline."

[HawaiianGecko]

 

Well, this is the fifth time in fifteen months that Indian Point 2 had to be shut down for unscheduled reasons, and the second time in a week.  Last week it was a cracked fuel rod.

 

Oh, and I'm very pro-nuke.  The headline "Nuclear Plant Stable After Explosion"
is certainly a bit hyperbolic and misleading. Had it said "fire in transformer yard at nuke plant", I wouldn't have expelled enough energy to yawn, let alone read the article.

[Old Professer]

Modern transformers explode in flames mainly because the non-flammable oils (PCBs) were outlawed even with not a single report of a proved cancer case related to the oil itself.

Transformers are sealed cans with massive coils of wire about an armature immersed in oil for its cooling effect.

Excess current will cause a fault, a sudden rise in temperature and pressure and a rupture of the case; with the PCB oil the oil would harmlessly leak out and down the sides of the can but with the reversion to mineral oils, the superheated oil bursts into flame on contact with the oxygen-laden outside air and there is your explosion and fire.

[burzum]

Absolutely, but the headline is still misleading. If they wrote a headline that says that a transformer exploded at nuclear plant, few people would be worried. But cutting those couple of words makes the headline so much more interesting (especially for those who don’t understand how nuclear plants work or how electrical distribution systems work).

[dfwgator]

I rag on the French as much as any Freeper, but the one thing they do right is Nuclear Power.

[SpaceBar]

Misleading headline journalism at its finest. Somebody should call up the reporter and say “your daughter dyed .... wool in school today”.

[aShepard]

“Women and Children most effected!

When the reporters interviewed President Bush, he admitted that it was his fault, although Brownie was not in the immediate radioactive fallout zone.

Henry Waxman, and NY Senators Chucky Schmucky Schumer, and Her Thighness Hellary, to call for congressional investigations!”

[theFIRMbss]

>The media wouldn't be trying to scare everyone

Well, the real nightmare
is if even a little
radiation leaks

it'll be so hard
on the poor dogs and kitties
already weakened

by their exposure
to all the poisoned pet food
they got from China . . .

[aShepard]

...........it’ll be so hard
on the poor dogs and kitties
already weakened

by their exposure
to all the poisoned pet food
they got from China . . .......

Whilst they’re treading water in New York because of the rising water caused by Global Warming!

[Cobra64]

I rag on the French as much as any Freeper, but the one thing they do right is Nuclear Power.

Ditto that.

[taxcontrol]

Alternate title:

Transformer fire requires additional paperwork for plant

[arthurus]

The doorknob to the janitorial closet in the guard shack malfunctioned when the key broke off in the lock. There was no discernible release of radiation. No injuries have been reported. Investigation is ongoing.

[burzum]

The doorknob to the janitorial closet in the guard shack malfunctioned when the key broke off in the lock. There was no discernible release of radiation. No injuries have been reported. Investigation is ongoing.

Yeah, but to be safe perhaps we should shut down all nuclear plants until we can prove that an accident like this will never happen again.

[boop]

This guy did it.

[sefarkas]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was closely monitoring an Unusual Event at the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant earlier today. An Unusual Event, the lowest of four levels of emergency classification, was declared at the Buchanan, N.Y., facility at 11:43 a.m. following a transformer failure and fire. Entergy, which operates the plant, exited the Unusual Event at 12:47 p.m.

The fire was extinguished by the transformer’s deluge system and the plant’s fire brigade responded. There was no radiation release associated with the event and no impact on public health and safety. The reactor automatically shut down and is stable.

NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins said, “Our on-site resident inspector staff was on the site at the time of the event and closely followed the company’s response to ensure that all appropriate actions were taken.”

In addition to the Resident Inspectors, the Incident Response Center in the agency’s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa., was activated to track developments and determine if plant operators were responding appropriately. The incident was monitored from the NRC’s Emergency Operations Center in Rockville, Md., as well.

The transformer that failed carries electricity from the main generator to the electrical grid.

This is the fourth unplanned shutdown of Unit 3 since July. This will cause the NRC to conduct additional inspections at the unit.

One Tue, 3Apr07, IP3 manually tripped at 04:16 on 4/3/2007 due to low steam generator levels that occurred while the 31 MBFP [main boiler feed pump] speed control was being isolated for maintenance. See EN43272.

IP3 had been in a refueling outage during Mar07. They were working on the last of the post-refueling tests when the transformer caught fire.

[WHBates]

"Last week it was a cracked fuel rod.

I'm skeptical about this statement. If it shut down for a cracked fuel rod last week it wouldn't be running now.