Free Republic

A multibillion-dollar expansion of a South Texas nuclear facility appears to have been derailed by last month's tsunami in Japan. NRG Energy, the company orchestrating the expansion plans — and hoping Austin would partner with it in some capacity — said Tuesday that it was pulling its financial support, leaving a multibillion-dollar gap other partners would have to fill. NRG President and CEO David Crane said the expansion faces "diminished prospects" in the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated Japan last month and caused the world's biggest nuclear crisis since Chernobyl at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

WASHINGTON, April 18 — A nuclear reactor in Texas is leaking cooling water from the bottom of its giant reactor vessel, a development that experts view with concern because they have never seen it before, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said today. Technicians at the South Texas Nuclear Project, about 90 miles southwest of Houston, have found residues indicating that cooling water leaked from the vessel through two penetrations where instruments are inserted into the core, according to the company that operates the plant. Operators at all 103 commercial nuclear reactors have been giving closer attention to their reactor vessels since...