Reuters: It now appears quake caused problem inside both reactor cores at North Anna, triggering shutdown -Officials

NRC rejects quick restart at Virginia nuclear plant, Reuters, September 9, 2011:

[... D]uring a public meeting on Thursday to discuss the Aug. 23 earthquake [...] Dominion officials said it now appears the reactors shut when the earthquake caused a problem inside the cores at both units rather than from the loss of outside power to the plant as initially reported. [...]

“It looks like the rods were going into the core prior to the transformer opening” -Dominion executive

h/t Anonymous tip

 

Related Posts

  1. “Reactors themselves seem to have undergone changes that caused automatic systems to shut them” -North Anna Official September 8, 2011
  2. North Anna: Officials unsure whether control rods fell into reactor core due to shaking or loss of power September 6, 2011
  3. Nuclear Engineer: If quake caused weakness at Virginia’s North Anna nuke plant, hurricane could take it rest of way to failure August 27, 2011
  4. Officials change story about why North Anna reactors went into automatic shut down after quake — “There were multiple trip signals coming in” September 4, 2011
  5. Time.com: “Augmented Inspection Team” is only used when risk of reactor core damage rises by 100 — AIT already at quake-hit North Anna nuke plant September 1, 2011

22 comments to Reuters: It now appears quake caused problem inside both reactor cores at North Anna, triggering shutdown -Officials

  • kintaman

    I hope that no one in North America is under the impression that their authorities will be more forthcoming, in the event of a serious nuclear incident than TEPCO and the Japanese government were.

    I tell you right now, they would be doing the same thing (silent). The only difference is that in the US they would violently arrest anyone attempting to spread this information on the web or in a protest.

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    • Al-Chemisto

      I agree completely with your statements. I would be more inclusive though. I would say: “There are situations at present, which are life threatening to the population, that the NRC, IAEA, and the various Utilities know about with complete clarity, that they are not telling anyone outside of their circle [the public] about.”

      These events have been continuous and will always be continuous, but due to the nature of government and its merchantile ways the public will never be told. We will only die through long acute or low-dosage exposure or be used as dumping grounds via direct feeding.

      So says the Fluoride program. The Nuclear Program. The Agri-Business Program. And the Medical and Military Programs. LOL! :)

      This Nuclear Program is not a “special case” ethical exception. This is the Standard Operational Procedure.

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    • kx kx

      AFTER D DAY and the end of WWII america as slowly slipped into the fascist state, worst every decade.

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  • James2

    Also in that meeting it was obvious that the power company was 100% focused on reopening the plant, and 0% focused on safety. They described all their “visual” inspections and how everything appeared OK and they wanted to get the plant back online ASAP.

    The NRC folks gave a show of concern for public safety, and to their credit did ask about some of the data, and why it took awhile to evaluate and release – forcing some additional inspection steps.

    Several citizen questions at the end – that appeared to me to be all pre-selected – went unanswered.

    All of those from the NRC and the utility who were in attendance were documented and will be notified of their personal obligation under the federal regulations – and subject to a felony conviction – to make sure without a doubt that public safety is assured before restarting the reactors.

    I suspect a restart will be a long time coming.

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    • Ken31ONCA

      Ok whatever you say you conspiracy theroist, you have no idea about anything do ya? Do everyone a favour and keep ur dumb ideas to yourself

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      • James2

        Ahh, good morning Kenny Boy. I knew you were out there. Your insults are a refreshing start to this day, and so clearly delineate the value and purpose of my contributions and yours.

        Me, a conspiracy theorist? It’s Ironic you think this way. Please educate me on my conspiracy leanings – after all, I recall it was I who pointed out you were foisting conspiracies on us last week.

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  • notactive

    I hope they have a partial meltd….

    STOP NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS….

    ITS 100% NOT safe!!!!!

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    • Ken31ONCA

      I totally agree, they don’t have any idea what happened. Their stories are all over thr place too.

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    • FML

      Well that’s just fucking stupid.

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    • Terranigma1

      Why your comments are an uphill battle:

      Towards a World War III Scenario

      “The World is at a critical crossroads. The Fukushima disaster in Japan has brought to the forefront the dangers of Worldwide nuclear radiation.”

      “Coinciding with the onset of the nuclear crisis in Japan, a new regional war theater has opened up in North Africa, under the disguise of a UN sponsored “humanitarian operation” with the mandate to “protect civilian lives”.

      “These two seemingly unrelated events are of crucial importance in understanding both the nuclear issue as well as the ongoing US-NATO sponsored war, which has now extended its grip into Libya. The crisis in Japan has been described as “a nuclear war without a war”. Its potential repercussions, which are yet to be fully assessed, are far more serious than the Chernobyl disaster, as acknowledged by several scientists.”

      “The crisis in Japan has also brought into the open the unspoken relationship between nuclear energy and nuclear war. Nuclear energy is not a civilian economic activity. It is an appendage of the nuclear weapons industry which is controlled by the so-called defense contractors. The powerful corporate interests behind nuclear energy and nuclear weapons overlap. In Japan at the height of the disaster, “the nuclear industry and government agencies [were] scrambling to prevent the discovery of atomic-bomb research facilities hidden inside Japan’s civilian nuclear power plants”.[1] The media consensus…

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    • Terranigma1

      Continuation of media story —

      “The media consensus is that the crisis at Fukushima’s five nuclear power plants has been contained. The realties are otherwise. The Japanese government has been obliged to acknowledge that “the severity rating of its nuclear crisis … matches that of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster”. Moreover, the dumping of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean constitutes a potential trigger to a process of global radioactive contamination. Radioactive elements have not only been detected in the food chain in Japan, radioactive rain water has been recorded in California.”

      World War III Scenario

      “The Pentagon’s global military design is one of world conquest. The military deployment of US-NATO forces is occurring in several regions of the World simultaneously. Militarization at the global level is instrumented through the US military’s Unified Command structure: the entire planet is divided up into geographic Combatant Commands under the control of the Pentagon. According to (former) NATO Commander General Wesley Clark, the Pentagon’s military road-map consists of a sequence of war theaters: “[The] five-year campaign plan [includes]… a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.”

      http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25185

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  • radegan

    I’m sure they’ll promise to do another ‘walkaround’ before they throw the switch back on. Grab a few pipes and give them a good shake, that sort of thing. Then throw some Holy Water in the reactor and let er rip.

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  • farawayfan

    “It looks like the (fuel) rods were going into the core prior to the transformer opening,”

    Ok, all other enormous implications aside, this line shows the sad state of journalism. The insertion of the word fuel was to clarify, but the journalist clearly does not understand the difference between a fuel rod and control rod.

    ARGH.

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  • Heart of the Rose

    We are wondering how the evacuees from the flooding back east are doing..
    And of course… there is controversy.
    I can’t help that. http://www.standard.net/slideshows/2011/09/09/floods-swamp-east-coast
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8qjfegJT0A&feature=channel_video_title
    The Truthers, at least, give a damn….

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  • Jebus Jebus

    Leas: Entergy’s case to keep operating Vermont Yankee falls of its own weight

    by Opinion | September 12, 2011

    Editor’s note: This op-ed is by James Marc Leas, a patent lawyer from South Burlington who served as a staff physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in the aftermath of the accident at Three Mile Island. It is a speech he delivered Sept. 10 in Brattleboro to a rally urging closure of Entergy Corp.’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant as scheduled next year.

    http://vtdigger.org/2011/09/12/leas-entergys-case-to-keep-operating-vermont-yankee-falls-of-its-own-weight/

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