Fukushima USA? A Dozen Nuclear Plants In Hurricane Sandy's Path

The following lists the nuclear reactors and utilities in Sandy’s potential path.

While we don’t foresee any problems, the risk of nuclear accident in the U.S. is actually much greater than it was in Japan before Fukushima.

For example, fuel pools in the United States store an average of ten times moreradioactive fuel than stored at Fukushima, and have virtually no safety features.

Let’s review the list and look at examples of problems experienced by the nuclear plants in Hurricane Sandy’s path:

• Brunswick experienced a reactor coolant system leak last year

• Surry has recently been plagued by problems with the coolant system, valvesand damage from a tornado

• North Anna leaked tritium last year after an earthquake shook the plant and shifted around a gigantic radioactive storage cask

• Calvert Cliffs was knocked offline by the last hurricane

• Salem has been riddled with problems with security, turbines problems and  other issues.

• Hope Creek has suffered security problems, has the same design as the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1, has “some of the same issues with above-ground storage of spent fuel rods as Fukushima” and “was designed to withstand certain major weather events but we need to look at the potential impacts of more extreme events, especially … sea level rise and flooding”

• Peach Bottom purportedly has a defective design and has been plagued by various problems

• Limerick has suffered electrical and other issues

• Three Mile Island  suffered another leak in the cooling system last month

• Susquehanna has been hit with one problem after another

• Oyster Creek has been plagued with electrical and other problems

• Indian Point is widely recognized as one of the nation’s worst nuclear plants.  If Indian Point melted down, it could close New York City for years, and cost half a trillion dollars or more

• Millstone’s vulnerability is shown by the fact that it was shut down due to warm seawater

• Pilgrim has numerous structural problems.  And see this.  Pilgrim’s spent fuel pools contain more radioactive cesium than released by Fukushima, Chernobyl and all nuclear bomb tests combined

• Seabrook has had problems with corrosion, computers and a host of other issues

• Vermont Yankee – which has around 10 times more spent fuel rods than any of the individual Fukushima reactors – leaked tritium