Gun goes off at Indian Point power plant
http://news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=241880&position=0&news_type=news
(01/19/10)
BUCHANAN - A security guard at the Indian Point nuclear power facility
has been suspended after his gun went off while inside the plant.
Officials say there was no damage to the plant in
the Saturday mishap, and no one was injured. It appears the guard pulled the
gun from its holster when it went off.
Entergy, the company that owns the facility, is
calling the matter an accident, but it has launched a full investigation into
how this happen. The nuclear regulatory commission has joined in the
investigation.
Indian Point union workers are currently
negotiating a new contract and have threatened to strike. The talks are on hold
until Wednesday at the request of a federal mediator.
recall the 2008
incident of gun possession by a contractor
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/indian.point.nuclear.2.734352.html
###
Nuclear steam leak intentional: Response to Indian Point plant
shutdown
BY ABBY
LUBY
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, January 8th 2010,
4:00 AM
The recent shutdown at the Indian Point Nuclear power plant and
release of contaminated steam into the atmosphere was intentional, the federal
agency that oversees the nation's nuclear power plants insisted Thursday.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil
Sheehan said the release valves "were intentionally opened (as
per plant procedures) as part of the shutdown."
The steam went undetected for two days in November from Unit 2 at the Westchester-based
nuke plant.
NRC inspectors at Indian Point later learned that an estimated 600,000
gallons of boiling, radioactive water turned to steam and was released over the
lower Hudson Valley.
Sheehan explained that boiling, radioactive water did not flash into
steam as it exited the valves and hit the air, but rather that the valves first
reduced pressure in the form of steam created in the steam generators.
"The boiling has already occurred in the steam generators before
the steam ever reaches the atmospheric steam dump valves," he said.
A Daily News investigation confirmed that the steam dump valves were
intentionally opened because of a problem in the generator at Indian Point that
caused the plant to shut down.
But it also found the valve didn't close when it was supposed to and
kept releasing steam into the environment.
NRC inspectors are still trying to figure out what really happened. A
report on the incident is expected at the end of the month.
Because a radioactive steam cloud is difficult to see, the massive amount of steam was verified by a NRC inspector at the
plant.
Sheehan stressed that the level of a radioactive isotope tritium in the
steam was below the allowable federal levels for drinking water. The News,
however, has reported that the release of tritium was not in drinking water but
airborne in escaped steam which is inhaled through the
lungs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not
have safe levels set for inhaling tritium. The NRC uses the drinking water
levels whenever radiated water is dumped into the Hudson
River or when it threatens to contaminate ground water.
Entergy, the owner of the
Indian Point, files annual reports about radioactivity regularly released into
the air and water.
But The News found the reports are published too long after the fact and
mired in technological jargon, unlike timely news stories that inform the
general public.
Sheehan responded that "The U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission takes seriously its mission of protecting people and the
environment. Part of that mission is assessing the significance of events and
responding accordingly."
###
Courthouse News Service
January 05, 2010
Lawmaker
Sues Feds Over Nuke Plant Safety
By TIM HULL
(CN) - A New York assemblyman claims the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission is endangering the public by allowing the Indian Point
nuclear plant to use substandard insulation around electric cables that would
control the shutdown of the reactor in the event of a core
meltdown. Richard L. Brodsky, assemblyman for the 92nd District, says the
NRC had no authority to grant the Indian Point Energy Center, in Westchester
County, an exemption to use insulation that protects shutdown cables against
fire for 24 minutes, instead of the legally required one hour.
Brodsky, a Democrat, says the plant
has been operating under the exemption since 2007.
Brodsky sued the NRC in Manhattan
Federal Court, with co-plaintiffs the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network,
Public Health and Sustainable Energy, and the Sierra Club. They claim the NRC
violated federal environmental laws and regulations by granting the exemption
without legal authority to do so, and without holding public hearings.
"The 'exemption' now allows the
nuclear reactor to operate with greatly reduced fire protection thereby putting
the public at heightened risk of consequences of a loss of reactor control
resulting from a fire, catastrophic event, terrorist attack, or a combination
of those events," Brodsky says in the complaint.
NRC regulations require all nuclear
power plants built before 1979 to wrap their emergency shutdown cables in
fire-retardant insulation capable of withstanding a fire for one hour.
Indian Point's exemption requires its
insulation to hold off the flames for just 24 minutes, Brodsky says.
The 2nd Circuit dismissed a similar
complaint from Brodsky last year on jurisdictional grounds.
The plaintiffs want the court to
declare that the NRC exemption violates federal law, and force the plant into
compliance.
They are represented
by Brodsky and Susan Shapiro of Spring Valley, N.Y.
From the Web site Law360
Nuclear Agency
Under Fire Over NY Power Plant
Law360, New York (January 04, 2010) -- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission is under assault from a New York state assemblyman and the Sierra
Club, which allege the federal agency has failed to
uphold necessary fire protections at Entergy
Corp.Õs Indian Point nuclear power plant.
Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky filed suit Wednesday in the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York, accusing the NRC of
illegally granting Entergy an exemption from insulation standards put in place
to safeguard against a catastrophic fire at the facility.
The NRC has allowed Entergy to permanently avoid insulation
requirements for the electric cables that control reactor shutdown in an
emergency and are critical to protect against a meltdown, according to the
complaint.
While the agency has historically required commercial operators to
provide insulation that would protect the cables from fire for at least one
hour, the Indian Point facility is permitted to operate with insulation that
would withstand fire for only 24 minutes, the complaint argues.
In September 2007, the NRC granted Entergy an exemption from the
insulation standards in violation of the Atomic Energy Act, the Administrative
Procedures Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, the suit alleges.
ÒThe ÔexemptionÕ was illegally granted in complete secrecy with no
public notice, no opportunity for public comment, no opportunity to offer or
question evidence, no public hearing,Ó the plaintiffs said.
ÒAs a result of these actions Indian Point is not in compliance with
the terms and conditions of its license and the laws and relations governing
commercial nuclear reactors and is not operating with a greatly enhanced danger
to the public,Ó the complaint added.
Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the NRC, said the agency had not yet
received a copy of the complaint, but emphasized the adequacy of the safety
precautions at the Indian Point plant.
ÒWe have a high degree of confidence that the Indian Point plant can
safely cope with a fire situation,Ó Sheehan said. ÒTheyÕve developed plans,
weÕve inspected them on a regular and ongoing basis and believe they properly
protect the plant and public health.Ó
Brodsky and fellow plaintiffs CitizensÕ Awareness Network and the
Sierra Club originally filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit, but that court ruled in August 2009 that it lacked jurisdiction
over claims for violations of the Hobbs Act, according to the suit.
In dismissing the suit, however, the appeals court encouraged the
plaintiffs to pursue their claims in the district court under the APA, the
complaint states.
The plaintiffs are represented by Brodsky.
Counsel information for the NRC was not immediately available.
The case is Brodsky et al. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
case number 7:09-cv-10594, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of New York.