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N.C. Warn Two Progress Energy Nukes Fail Summer’s Test Second Year of Extended Summer Outages Reflects on Reliability
DURHAM, NC – Two of Progress Energy’s five nuclear power plants are suffering extended outages during the middle of the summer air conditioning season—for the second straight year. Each outage could be costing the company one million dollars per day in lost revenues. The company’s Brunswick 1 plant, south of Wilmington, NC, has been producing no power since an unplanned shutdown on August 11 caused by detection of a hydrogen leak in a system needed to cool the plant’s electric generator. That day, the company said the plant would restart within forty-eight hours. Last Wednesday, Progress told NC WARN the leak had taken longer to find than expected. Yesterday, the spokesman said the plant was still off-line because Progress had decided to perform additional maintenance during the outage. NRC records show Brunswick 1 at two percent capacity this morning, indicating the company is attempting to restart the reactor. Normally it takes at least two days to resume full power once start up procedures have commenced. Progress Energy’s Crystal River Plant in Florida has been at zero power since Saturday morning, following leakage of a cooling water system inside the reactor containment building that exceeded allowable limits. Plant workers reacted properly by taking the reactor off-line to correct the problem. The two-day start-up process had not begun as of this morning’s report to NRC. Last summer, Brunswick 1 was down for a week during the July heat wave due to a problem in the reactor cooling system. Then in August, both Brunswick 1 and 2 were down and/or at very low power for a week due to the inoperability of backup generator systems. These problems could be related to the aging of the plants and/or years of industry-wide cost-cutting trends. Both Brunswick reactors and Progress’ Harris plant have suffered numerous unplanned outages in recent years—problems which often lower safety margins. Harris leads the nation in one type of outage, called a scram, with nine between 2002 and 2005. Utilities always schedule refueling outages for spring or fall to avoid lost revenues during periods of peak demand. Increasingly, summer heat waves are challenging nuclear power plant outputs and safety levels in Europe and the US, as rising river and lake water temperatures impair the ability to cool various plant systems. That problem is likely to worsen as global warming keeps advancing. “Despite the industry’s prodigious and deceptive public relations offensive, nuclear plants are becoming more failure-prone when air conditioning is needed most,” said NC WARN Executive Director. “It’s quite paradoxical that pro-nuclear enthusiasts disparage wind and solar energy as unreliable.”
Jim Warren is the Executive Director of N.C. Warn, a participating organization within the North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network. Contact: Ph: 919-416-5077, Fax: 919-286-3985 PO Box 61051, Durham, NC 27715-1051. |
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Carolina Civic Voice Fall 2006 Vol. 6, No 3 |