{"id":215,"date":"2013-01-10T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T21:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/vogtle-nuclear-reactor-train-wreck.html"},"modified":"2013-01-10T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T21:26:12","slug":"vogtle-nuclear-reactor-train-wreck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/vogtle-nuclear-reactor-train-wreck.html","title":{"rendered":"Vogtle nuclear reactor train wreck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nEver wondered what a nuclear reactor vessel looks like?\nHere’s one that’s literally a train wreck,\non its way to Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River.\n<\/p>\nRob Pavey wrote for the Augusta Chronicle 10 January 2013,\n\nVogtle reactor vessel slips between Savannah, Burke County<\/a>,\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nA 300-ton reactor vessel bound for Plant Vogtle was stranded briefly\nin south Georgia this week after a malfunction with the specially\ndesigned rail car moving the nuclear component from Savannah to\nBurke County. Workers examine a rail car that was transporting a\n300-ton reactor vessel from the Port of Savannah to the Plant Vogtle\nnuclear site in Burke County. A misalignment between the cargo\nplatform and the rail car caused the component to be returned to\nSavannah.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe platform that contained the RV (reactor vessel) during\ntransport became misaligned with the Schnabel railcar, so the\nrailcar stopped immediately,\u201d said Georgia Power Co. spokesman\nMark Williams. \u201cThe platform and car were re-aligned the same\nday and safely returned to the port.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Schnabel railcar, which features extra axles that help\ndistribute and support the weight of heavy objects, did not break,\nhe said. Georgia Power would not divulge the location of the\nincident.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nI wonder what the locals think.\nWe’d ask them, if we knew where they were.\n<\/p>\n

\nWell, that’s the only mishap so far, right?\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\nRob Pavey\nwrote for the Augusta Chronicle 7 January 2013,\n\nPlant Vogtle expansion: What’s ahead for 2013?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAlso scheduled for the first quarter is the complex work of pouring\n6,850 cubic yards of concrete that must be applied in a continuous,\n50-hour stream to form the nuclear basemat for one of the new\nreactors.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat work was scheduled to occur last fall but was delayed while\nissues including noncompliant rebar were resolved.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe’re progressing toward that point, but we have to make sure\nwe get it right the first time,\u201d Williams said, noting that it\nwill involve the use of 20 to 24 trucks relaying specially\nformulated concrete from an on-site plant to the steel reinforced\nfoundation area.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSure and they’ll get it completely right, like at the last reactor\npermitted before these ones.\nShir Haberman wrote for SeaCoastOnline.com 12 December 2012,\n\nConcrete cracks at Seabrook nuclear plant concern public<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nChris Nord pointed to the records of the Employees Legal Project,\nwhich sought to give voice to and protect Seabrook whistleblowers\nduring the plant’s construction phase. He read documented\nallegations of bottles and cans being thrown into wet cement by\nworkers, concrete being poured in adverse conditions, and supporting\nsteel structures being cut off at incorrect levels.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nMaybe somebody should have listened\n\nback in 1986<\/a> when API reported:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nA new group of whistleblowers and two former Seabrook nuclear plant\nworkers charged Monday the project has safety flaws, including empty\nbeer cans within the walls of the concrete reactor containment\nbuilding.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n1986 was before\n\nthat Seabrook reactor went into full operation in 1990.<\/a>\nMaybe stopping it then would have been a better idea.\n<\/p>\n

\nYes, but that would never happen at this nuke, right?\nAnd it’s all just physical logistical snafus, anyway, right?\nBack to Rob Pavey 7 Jan 2013:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nLast year, the consortium building the units filed a $900 million\nlawsuit against Georgia Power and other Vogtle owners, seeking\nrecovery of additional costs it contends resulted from licensing\ndelays, design changes and complications with the backfilling during\nsite preparation.\n<\/p>\n

\nGeorgia Power, whose share of those costs would be about $425\nmillion, filed its own lawsuit asserting it is not responsible for\nthose costs.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s right, the companies involved\n\nhave formed a circular firing squad.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat, Georgia Power worry?\nRemember,\n\nthey can charge you even if it’s cancelled!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nMaybe we shouldn’t let them slip another\n\n15 months behind schedule<\/a>\nwhile running up\n\ncost overruns of 26 times like last time<\/a> at the same Savannah River site.\n<\/p>\n

\nHere are\n\nsome people you can contact<\/a> to say enough is enough.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever wondered what a nuclear reactor vessel looks like? Here’s one that’s literally a train wreck, on its way to Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River. Rob Pavey wrote for the Augusta Chronicle 10 January 2013, Vogtle reactor vessel slips between Savannah, Burke County, A 300-ton reactor vessel bound for Plant Vogtle was stranded briefly […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,16,8,18,19,104,21,32,53,3,449],"tags":[956,635,8704,8706,8701,8708,8709,8702,12,7,8737,8711,107,8715,314,958,955,899,8725,953,8700,8767,6,957,954],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-history","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-pollution","category-sustainability","category-transparency","category-transportation","tag-burke-county","tag-concrete","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-pollution","tag-reactor","tag-rebar","tag-savannah-river","tag-seabrook","tag-sustainability","tag-train","tag-transparency","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta","tag-waynesboro","tag-wreck"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}