Although the mainstream media said next to nothing about it, independent experts have made it clear that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma threatened six U.S. nuclear plants with major destruction, and therefore all of us with apocalyptic disaster. It is a danger that remains for the inevitable hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters yet to come.
The picture accompanying this article is of a big, dirty, coal-burning power plant…
And as usual, Mr. Wasserman’s articles are free of scientific fact as to make Anthony Watts blush if he were to try it on his famous global warming denialist blog. In particular, none of the nuclear power plants in Florida and Texas were “under severe threat of catastrophic failure” and no, they don’t “rely on off-site power”. Like all US nuclear plants, they have regularly tested backup generators that, as required by the NRC (and unlike Fukushima) must be safe from the flooding of a “PMP” event - the maximum physically possible storm.
We need discourse about these dangers to glow in the dark
Scary stuff! It’s not a question of if we will have a nuclear disaster, only when. When it happens, I wonder how long it will take the public to learn of the occurrence. I wonder if we will be told the truth of it. I have a felling that the “evacuation” plans will be insufficient, especially given the huge growth in
population in coastal areas over the last 20-30 years
More specifically, it’s the Robert W Scherer Power Plant (aka Plant Scherer) in Juliette GA. When running at capacity, it burns a ton of coal in less than three seconds.
Its simply amazing how you try so hard to condemn nuclear reactors. That severe threat of catastrophic risk? Actually there was literally ZERO risk catastrophic failure at the Turkey Point plant, as the reactors were shutdown prior to arrival of the storm. What on earth are you talking about? You are equating salt buildup to generator failure from a tsunami, how on earth are you a reporter on this topic? That’s not even remotely related…
Furthermore Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station uses Boiling Water Reactors, which are a completely different model than ALL reactors affected by hurricanes this past few weeks (All reactors were Pressurized Water Reactors). Your lack of research is astounding sir!
Its actually not that scary when you look at actual reports by the NRC and the real facts presented. To compare US Nuclear reactors to what occurred at Fukushima is honestly nothing short of libel.
- Fukushima used BWR models; while all US reactors in question are PWRs- they are completely different reactors
- Fukushima experienced a tsunami. In the last 300 years the continental USA has experienced a grand total of ZERO tsunamis.
- All reactors in the USA in question are located at higher elevation than the Fukushima Daiichi Plant.
- None of the reactors in question experienced any IAEA level event during the hurricane, and in fact some of them continued to generate electricity, versus literally every other type of energy source that was unable to produce any amount while being impacted by the storm. The STP plant in Texas even ran at full capacity and experienced no reportable damage- so much for catastrophic risk…
The fact that Wasserman failed to recognize that no nuclear plant on earth has smoke stacks perfectly illustrates how laughable this topic post is… It is amazing how much utter garbage like this the nuclear industry has to put up with.
His very first reference of “independent experts” on nuclear reactors turns out to be “The Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour”. This guy Wasserman is a total flake.
We already had A nuclear disaster, it was called 3 Mile Island and the downwind nuclear release was much worse than the Carter Administration led us to believe…
I would also say that the unsecure nuclear waste at Hampton is A Nuclear disaster-