The Millstone Nuclear Power Station is located near Waterford, Connecticut in an old quarry and it draws cooling water from Niantic Bay on Long Island Sound. There are two operating General Electric pressurized water reactors on the site. Unit Two is an 870 megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor that started generating power in 1985 with a forty years license. Unit Three is an 1150 megawatt Westinghouse pressurized water reactor that started generating power in 1986 with a forty years license.  Both units were relicensed in 2005 for an additional twenty years. The plant was built by Northeast Nuclear Energy and is currently owned and operated by Dominion Nuclear.

           The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about one hundred and thirty thousand people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about three million people. The NRC estimates that there is a low risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.

            In 1988, leaks were reported at Millstone. In 1991, eight control rods did not insert properly during emergency shutdown. In 1993, leaks caused Unit Three to be shut down and problems were discovered in the emergency power supply while Unit Two was shut down for refueling. In 1996, Northeast Utilities, the parent company for Northeast Nuclear Energy, voluntarily shut down Unit Two because it had some of the same problems that had been identified in a study of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Part of the reason for the shutdown was a lot of other problems that the plant had been having.  Unit Two remained offline for three years as extensive changes were made to management and to the physical plant in light of the repeated inspections and warnings since 1991. Unit Three was shut down in 1996 because the NRC determined that the containment isolation valves did not comply with regulations. It remained offline for two years while repairs were made.

          In 1999, two subsidiaries of the corporation that owned Millstone pled guilty to twenty five violations for environmental and nuclear laws and paid a ten million dollar fine. The charges included problems with nuclear training and environmental impact at Millstone. The problems at Millstone prompted a deep review of NRC procedures. A cover story in Time magazine in 1996 discussed the problems at the Millstone reactor. Following a review of the procedures for inspections and warnings, the NRC made extensive changes to its system of inspections and notifications. Only the Three Mile Island accident prompted more changes in the inspection and regulation of nuclear reactors in the United States. In 2000, the Millstone plant was sold to Dominion Nuclear and since the sale, the reputation of the plant for following NRC regulations has improved considerably.

 

US residents near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation may be in grave danger.  rt.com

Radioactive in man’s body in Fukushima is still 300% over background levels. youtube.com

No permits for uranium exploration or mining will be issued in Quebec until an independent study into its environmental impact has been completed. world-nuclear-news.org

 Uranium mining company Toro Energy has been granted federal environmental approval for the Wiluna uranium project in the state of Western Australia. world-nuclear-news.org

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 4, 2013

Ambient office = .074 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .093 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain = .098 microsieverts per hour

Marinated artichoke hearts from local grocery store .112 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .116 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .108 microsieverts per hour

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 3, 2013

Ambient office = .102 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .105 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain = .086 microsieverts per hour

Feta cheese from local grocery store .105 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .105 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .092 microsieverts per hour

 

Japanese government plans to ban using imported food ingredients for school lunch in Fukushima. fukushima-diary.com

The prices of vegetables produced in Fukushima Prefecture at Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale markets have collapsed in fiscal 2012. mainichi.jp

Third of US West Coast Children Hit With Thyroid Problems Following Fukushima. zen-haven.com

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and France’s Areva SA have won an order to build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant.  reuters.com

         The LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station is located eleven miles southeast of Ottawa, Illinois and serves the Chicago area. The plant contains two twelve hundred megawatt General Electric boiling water reactors. Unit One was put into operation in 1982 and Unit Two was put into operation in 1984. The reactor uses LaSalle Lake, a man-made two thousand acre lake, for cooling. The plant was built by Commonwealth Edison Company. Exelon Corporation currently owns and operates the plant.

         The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about seventeen thousand seven hundred people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about one million nine hundred thousand people. The NRC estimates that there is a extremely risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.

        In April of 1994, LaSalle was fined by the NRC for failing to deal with problems involving electrical circuit breakers. In May of 1994, the NRC fined LaSalle for improperly handling radioactive materials.

        In February of 1995, a problem with the main steam isolation valves was discovered when Unit Two was being shut down for refueling. Later, one of the isolation valves for Unit One failed to operate correctly.

         In June of 1996, there were problems in the water system with strainers that experienced increased pressure. The problem was blamed on sandblasting material clogging the strainers but the same problem recurred and this time it was blamed on foam used for repairs clogging the intake system. Unit One had to be shut down because of the foam in the intake system               

         In July of 1996, the NRC sent a special inspection team to LaSalle because of a two year trend of declining performance in the water system. The NRC was concerned that the system could not operate safely in case there was an accident. The operators had been given repeated warnings and had repeatedly promised to deal with the problems. Unit One was shut down because of the intake being clogged and Unit Two was shut down for refueling. The operators had to address the problems reported by the NRC before they could restart either Unit. Resolving problems with both Units required over two years to resolve.

           In 2006, Unit One was being shut down for refueling when the control system for the turbine malfunctioned. This caused an automatic insertion of control rods to halt power generation. When the instrument panel indicated that three of the one hundred and eighty five control rods had not been fully inserted into the core, a site area emergency was declared. After a reset, only one rod appeared to have failed to insert. The emergency was cancelled in a few hours with no release of radioactivity. Review of the incident found that the problem lay in the sensors and that all the rods had actually been inserted correctly when the automatic shutdown occurred.

          Although there were no major accidents at LaSalle, there were repeated problems with equipment that were not addressed by the operators despite repeated warnings by the NRC.  

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 2, 2013

Ambient office = .106 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .082 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain = .120 microsieverts per hour

Sliced mushrooms from local grocery store .106 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .116 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .099 microsieverts per hour

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Monday sent investigators to Entergy Nuclear’s Arkansas Nuclear One site, where a “significant industrial accident” Sunday at Unit 1 left one worker dead and sent eight others to the hospital. platts.com

Underground tanks that hold a stew of toxic, radioactive waste at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site pose a possible risk of explosion.  foxnews.com

North Korea said Tuesday it will escalate production of nuclear weapons material. businessweek.com

Southern California Edison submitted an amendment to the NRC for the restart of nuclear unit 2 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. c/articles/pennenergy

           The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station is located between Fort Calhoun and Blair, Nebraska near the Missouri River. There is one four hundred and eighty four megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor at the plant. The reactor began operation in 1973 with a forty year license which expired in 2003. At that time, the plant was relicensed until 2033. The plant is owned by the Omaha Public Power District and currently operated by Exelon Nuclear Partners. It has been shut down since April of 2011 because of serious problems.

           The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about twenty thousand seven hundred people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about nine hundred and nine thousand people. The NRC estimates that there is a low risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.

           In 2009, a flood threat assessment by the NRC concluded that the plant could not handle a flood that 1014 feet above sea level as mandated by NRC regulation.  In 2010, a key electrical part failed during a test at the plant. Also in 2010, serious concerns were raised about the ability of the plant to deal with flooding of the nearby Missouri River. The NRC said that that the plant “did not have adequate procedures to protect the intake structure and auxiliary building against external flooding events” and that the plant was not prepared for a “worst-case flooding scenario.”  Vulnerabilities to potential floods were identified and changes were made by the plant owners.

           In April of 2011, the reactor was shut down for routine refueling. However, a number of problems had been identified at the plant including the use of Teflon for cable insulation which tends to break down in high radiation environments. Structural problems were identified when inspections were made in preparation for installing extra equipment to boost power output.     

           On June 7^th, 2011, there was a fire in an electrical switch room at the plant that briefly knocked out power to the cooling system for the spent fuel pool. Power was restored in ninety minutes. A backup generator was ready to take over supplying power to the cooling pumps if necessary but the main system was repaired and the backup pump was not used. It turned out that a breaker had failed that had been replaced eighteen months earlier.

            In late June of 2011, the Missouri River flooded and area remained flooded for weeks. Sandbags and berms were placed around the plant as a precaution and, although the flood waters surrounded the plant, the reactor itself was not flooded. A berm collapsed and external power was shut off but emergency generators supplied power to the cooling system. A no fly zone was put in place for the air space above the plant and there were wild rumors of a major disaster but no nuclear accident was caused by the floor. There was widespread damage to the area that did require extensive repairs.

          The plant has remained closed since the refueling shut down in April 2011 for repairs related to the flooding in 2011 and for repairs and work on a number of other problems at the plant. A 2013 report stated that the NRC had added to the checklist of problems that must be solved before the plant can be restarted. Electrical rates have already risen in the area to help pay for the necessary repairs.

Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 1, 2013

Ambient office = .099 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .130 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain = .138 microsieverts per hour

Romaine lettuce .093 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .093 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .077 microsieverts per hour