{"id":226,"date":"2013-01-05T08:03:53","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T13:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/substandard-fire-protection-at-nuclear-plant-hatch.html"},"modified":"2013-01-05T08:03:53","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T13:03:53","slug":"substandard-fire-protection-at-nuclear-plant-hatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/substandard-fire-protection-at-nuclear-plant-hatch.html","title":{"rendered":"Substandard fire protection at nuclear Plant Hatch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nDoes Hatch nuclear Unit 1 have substandard fire protection, like\nmany reactors built before 1975?\nProtection against fires that the NRC says cause about half\nthe core damage risk, such as at Fukushima, which is the same\ndesign as Hatch?\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to Simplyfy.org 2 Jan 2012,\n\nFire Risk At Older Japan Reactors Shows Potential Worldwide Problem<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n\n<\/a>\n

\n

\nThe [Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority] NRA announced recently that\nreactors built before 1975 likely have sub standard fire protection\ndesigns. This includes having important cables coated in fire resistant\ninsulation, isolating and protecting cables and creating barriers to\nprevent fires from spreading to other areas of critical equipment.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\nSource:\nThe Mainichi, 1 Jan 2013,\n\nOver 10 nuclear plants in Japan have flawed fire-prevention equipment: sources<\/a>.\n<\/small>\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nWhat else was built before 1975?\nPlant Hatch Unit 1\n\n“Operating License: Issued – 10\/13\/1974”<\/a>,\naccording to the U.S. NRC.\n\n100 miles from here,<\/a>\nand the same design as Fukushima.\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nDOE also instituted upgrades and changes to their reactor facilities\nwhich included facility modifications as a result of Browns Ferry\nfire. Private sector nuclear power reactors in the US are not all\nfully up to the newer rules. The NRC has issued a number of\nexemptions that watchdog groups have criticized as being unsafe.\nBrowns Ferry still does not meet the NRC fire rules for cables. 47\nof 52 reactors in the US still do not comply with the 1980 fire\nregulations.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nPlant Hatch is privately owned and operated.\nHas it been upgraded?\n\n\n\n<\/a>\nHow will we find out?\nWill Southern Company tell us?\nWill the NRC, which\n\ndoesn’t publish licensee documents?<\/a>\nThe NRC that\n\ngave Plant Vogtle a clean bill of health at a public meeting two days before Unit 1 shut down<\/a>?\n<\/p>\n

\nDo these fire regulations matter?\nThe NRC set them up after TVA’s Browns Ferry reactor caught on fire.\nAnd NRC itself says,\n\nBriefing on Fire Protection Issues, U.S. NRC, 17 July 2008,\np. 58<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n

\nApproximately one-half of the core damage risk at operating reactors\nresults from accident sequences that initiate with fire events.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nLike at, for example, Fukushima.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn 2002 the NRC\n\ngave Hatch 1 and 2 each 20 year license extensions, out to 2034 and 2038<\/a>.\nBut that doesn’t mean they’ll actually operate until then.\nDominion Power also got 20-year extensions for their Kewaunee plant, but\n\n<\/a>\n\nless than two years later Dominion is shutting it down.<\/a>\n\nWhy?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe market has spoken, and policy-makers should listen to and learn\nfrom that message.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe immediate excuse was natural gas prices, but\n\nit’s wind and especially solar that are abrading fossil and nuclear\ncredit quality<\/a>\nuntil soon the fossil fuel and nuclear power bubble will pop.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does Hatch nuclear Unit 1 have substandard fire protection, like many reactors built before 1975? Protection against fires that the NRC says cause about half the core damage risk, such as at Fukushima, which is the same design as Hatch? According to Simplyfy.org 2 Jan 2012, Fire Risk At Older Japan Reactors Shows Potential Worldwide […]","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":[97,48,14,70,2,19,104,21,23,73,289,24,3,36],"tags":[8736,995,972,8720,998,749,8704,8728,997,167,8701,8699,744,8709,427,627,8702,12,7,996,117,8737,8711,8713,8731,8758,8714,8700,6,8716],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-ethics","category-government","category-history","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-solar","category-transparency","category-wind","tag-activism","tag-browns-ferry","tag-carbon-bubble","tag-code-enforcement","tag-core","tag-dominion-power","tag-economy","tag-ethics","tag-fire","tag-fukushima","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-hatch","tag-history","tag-japan","tag-kewaunee","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nra","tag-nrc","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-renewable-energy","tag-safety","tag-science","tag-solar","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","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=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}