U.S.
There are no on-site safety threats at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined following last month’s leak from the facility that created an oil sheen in Lake Ontario.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Monday via email that the oil originated from a vent in the facility’s hydrogen seal system, which drained through the plant’s discharge drain system to the lake. The leak prompted the Coast Guard to shut down a large area of the waterfront on June 26, after the sheen was discovered, according to the Associated Press, which reported that 20 to 30 gallons of oil leaked from the plant.
Citing poor market conditions and other challenges, power provider Entergy has stated that it will shut the Oswego County facility down by early 2017. However, utility Exelon is looking at purchasing the plant and continuing operation, as the New York Public Service Commission moves forward with clean-energy credits it has proposed for upstate nuclear facilities. If approved, the plan could save FitzPatrick, as well as Exelon’s R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station.
“Our preliminary assessment was that there were no (on-site) impacts (from the leak), and that the company took timely steps to halt the leakage and then mitigate any off-site impacts,” Sheehan stated, adding that the impact on the aquatic environment is more of an issue for the state and Coast Guard.
Entergy spokeswoman Tammy Holden said by email this week that no additional oil is being released and that the sheen resulted from a small amount of residual oil from an earlier lubricating oil release that occurred during a June 24 plant shutdown to address an electrical equipment issue.
“There was no impact to worker or public safety as a result of the sheen discovered on Friday,” Holden said. “Due to the small size of the sheen it could not be recovered (absorbed) and has dispersed by natural means (wind, sun and wave action).”
INTERNATIONAL
The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Monday it has won approval to build two new vaults and an extension to a third vault at its Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR).
With the approval from planners in Cumbria, the facility, located near Drigg, will continue operation through 2050, creating about 120 construction jobs, according to the NDA announcement. Opened in 1957, LLWR serves as the U.K.’s sole site for disposal of solid waste containing low levels of radioactivity. The U.K. has invested more than £100 million into LLWR infrastructure over the past 10 years, NDA said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017. Planning approval also authorizes NDA to cap existing and new vaults, as well as seven clay-lined trenches, which hold waste deposited before the first vault opened in 1988.
“We are absolutely delighted,” LLW Repository Ltd. Managing Director Dennis Thompson said in a statement. “After three years of hard work, millions of pounds of investment, utilising dozens of technical and scientific experts, we submitted a substantive technical document that makes the case that it is safe to dispose of low level waste (LLW) at the site.”
