U.S. Nuke plants to enter digital age – soon

Just when I thought the U.S. nuclear industry couldn’t get more pathetically ridiculous than it already is, a news item today proudly announces that a nuclear reactor in South Carolina will become the first in the country to have digital controls installed on its safety and operating equipment.

Think about it.

The technology they’ve been using to ensure the safety of everyone around them is no more advanced than your grandfather’s wind-up alarm clock and slide rule.

Pilgrim Nuclear goes on “unplanned” shutdown

As long as we’re on the subject of safety, the Pilgrim Yankee Nuclear power plant in Plymouth suddenly shut down two weeks ago. The company would only say it was “operator error,” but couldn’t say how long it would stay shutdown. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, said its sending a special investigative team to find out what happened, something that they’ve done only a handful of times before.

Seabrook concrete weakened by water seepage

Just up the coast from Plymouth is the Seabrook Nuclear plant in Seabrook, NH. A report issued last week found that groundwater was undermining the concrete housing of the cables that run the plant’s safety system. Leakage into the tunnels could short circuit the safety system. This was first discovered sometime last year, but not publicized until last week. No sense rushing things. The NRC is happy to report no danger to the public.

It might be useful to remember it wasn’t the earthquake that caused the meltdown at Fukashima, but water from the tsunami that short-circuited the backup safety system.

Fight over Haddam wildlife sanctuary makes a mockery of conservation effort

The Clark Creek Wildlife Management Area in Haddam, Conn., sits on a sandy bluff overlooking the Connecticut River. It’s not very large, just 17 acres, but it’s a valuable riverine habitat, home to a wide array of plant and animal life, some of which may be endangered or protected species.

The parcel was considered so significant that the state of Connecticut determined it was worth preserving, and paid $1.3 million in 2003 to purchase it.

Adjacent to the parcel is the Riverhouse banquet facility. They would like to build a hotel and retail complex on the land. They’re chanting the jobs and boosting the local economy mantra.

To accomplish this, they propose to swap 87 acres of nearly worthless land they own in Higganum. It was land they had purchased for $450,000 in 2009 for a housing development that never materialized. Their plan is backed by the local business community, and they have a powerful political ally, state Sen. Eileen Daly (D-Westbrook) who chairs a legislative finance committee.

Sen. Daly plans has attached the land swap as part of a larger state property conveyance bill. The attempt has failed twice before.

And there’s a new threat on the horizon. The incoming state commissioner for energy and the environment has said he supports the swap, and may approve the swap administratively, with no legislative approval needed.

Meanwhile, conservationists are once again rallying support for saving the sanctuary.

The implications of this deal go way beyond preserving one small parcel. The land was purchased with public money for the purpose of preserving it. To give it up at the whim of a private development makes a mockery of whole notion of land conservation.

In Case of Nuclear Disaster, Don’t Call the President

I had always thought that should a major nuclear disaster occur, something like Fukashima, that the response would be in the hands of the president. Not so.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out that the sole authority for the response to an emergency lies with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. What measures to take to control the situation will come from the NRC chairman, currently Gregory Jaczko. As for evacuation orders, those have to come from state and local officials, not the president.

So what can we expect?

If history is any guide, their first response will be “there is no risk to the public.” This is what they always say whenever anything goes wrong at a nuclear plant. As for accurate information, forget it. It took three years before the true details of what happened at Three Mile Island became public.

During this ongoing crisis in Japan, information has been equally hard to come by. The mainstream news media has gone on to more important things – like Schwarzeneger’s love child and the royal wedding.

 You might recall that the news media was scrupulous in not calling what was going on a “meltdown.” Now that the media is no longer reporting anything about this, the nuclear agency in Japan last week conceded that a meltdown had indeed occurred at one of the reactors. You might also recall that they kept saying how this wasn’t as bad as Chernobyl, but they eventually had to concede it’s pretty darn close.

Among the other things that have gone largely unreported – Congress has decided to cut funding for safety inspections and measures at nuclear power plants, as part of the emergency budget adopted to avoid a government shutdown.