Fresh Loaf

Rob Pavey at the Augusta Chronicle reports the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have determined two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle would not have an impact on the environment. The commission approved an early site permit initially requested by Southern Co., the plant’s co-owner and operator, in August 2006.

From the article:

The early site permitting process allows an applicant to address site-related issues, such as environmental impacts, for possible construction and operation of a nuclear power plant.

Although it is not a license to build reactors, it streamlines the process to determine whether a proposed site is suitable.

(Photo courtesy of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

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Plant Hatch, a nuclear power plant primarily owned by Atlanta-based Southern Co., was forced into an emergency shutdown for 48 hours in early March because a software update rattled the system, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

From the article:

The incident occurred on March 7 at Unit 2 of the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley, Georgia. The trouble started after an engineer from Southern Company, which manages the technology operations for the plant, installed a software update on a computer operating on the plant’s business network.

…

Weiss said unplanned, automatic shutdowns such as what happened at the Hatch plant are costly, forcing utilities to purchase power from other parts of the grid to the tune of about $1 million a day. But more importantly, Weiss said, automatic shutdowns unnecessarily challenge nuclear safety systems.

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News of the Hatch incident also comes as the cyber-security posture of the electric and nuclear power industry is coming under increasing scrutiny from Congress and government investigators. Last month, the Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report about cyber security weaknesses at the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power company and operator of three nuclear plants, including Browns Ferry.

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“To people in the IT world, cyber means ‘attacks,’ but what I tell people is that in our world the predominant cyber events are unintentional,” he said. “The flip side of that is if it can happen unintentionally, it can probably be caused intentionally and be a whole lot worse.”

The article’s long, but it’s a great read that shows technology redundancies at power plants may be just as much a threat to their security as a terrorist attack.

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A planned expansion for Plant Vogtle, a Southern Co.-owned nuclear plant in Waynesboro, Ga., has been stymied because of the possible impact it may have on the nearby Savannah River. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, a federal panel that oversees nuclear facilities in the country, agreed with concerns voiced by such environmental groups as the Savannah Riverkeeper, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Center for a Sustainable Coast, and will now forward the matter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For more details, click here.

The various concerned groups also sent a letter to David Ratcliffe, Southern Co.’s CEO, outlining the environmental risks and financial uncertainties the plant’s expansion could pose. Click here to view the letter the opponents of the expansion sent to Ratcliffe.

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Several local civic groups and activists including members of Atlanta WAND, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, and singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls will rally outside the Atlanta office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 2 this afternoon.

Those rallying are opposed to Southern Company’s plan to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, plans that must be approved by the NRC. They point out that nuclear power is not only unsafe, but it also consumes huge quantities of water. In his Aug. 22 cover story about Southern Company’s nuclear strategy, CL’s Scott Henry noted that an expanded Plant Vogtle would consume more water each day than the entire city of Atlanta.

Here’s the press release:

(more…)

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