Détails source ADIL:
Fire at New York's Indian Point Nuclear Reactor
BUCHANAN, New York, April 30, 2003 (ENS) - A fire in the Unit 3 main turbine
of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant early Tuesday morning caused the
shutdown of the unit, and an emergency was declared by the plant's operator,
Entergy Nuclear. The fire was out in 47 minutes, but the incident revived
fears of surrounding residents that the Indian Point located on the Hudson
River is a dangerous neighbor.
Located 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan, Indian Point
is within a 50 mile radius of eight percent of the population of the United
States.
In a statement about the incident, Entergy said that control
room operators manually shut down Unit 3 after a fire started on the plant's
main turbine in a non-nuclear area of the plant. The fire, located 53 feet
above the floor of the turbine building, was extinguished by plant workers
using fixed and portable carbon dioxide fire suppression equipment, the company
said.
Entergy spokesman Larry Gottlieb said the fire smouldered
in insulation around the turbine, and some flames were seen. The plant, which
was returned to service April 23 following a refueling outage, was operating
at 60 percent power when it was shut down.
Entergy Nuclear says the cause of the fire is being investigated,
and Unit 3 will be returned to service after the investigation is completed.
Entergy immediately notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, New York State and Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam counties.
The emergency notice, declared at 3:13 am, was terminated at 5:09 am.
Indian Point Unit 2 was already shut down was and unaffected
by the fire or the reactor trip in Unit 3. Unit 2 shut down automatically
late Monday afternoon when a power outage occurred offsite causing the plant
to disconnect from the electrical grid as designed. Electrical equipment
in the plant's substation is designed to disconnect from the grid to protect
itself from potential damage caused by power surges in the grid. Unit 2 is
expected to be back in service within a few days.
Entergy Nuclear Northeast Indian Point Energy Center Site
Vice President Fred Dacimo was pleased with the response of the Indian Point
workers.
"In both situations Indian Point staff demonstrated their
skills and training by safely and correctly responding to these events,"
said Dacimo.
But in February, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) issued a report concluding it could not give "reasonable assurance"
that emergency evacuation plans for the area around the plant would work
in case of a nuclear meltdown.
The federal agency said its assessment was based mainly
on the failure of New York State to provide important information, and asked
state officials to comply by May 2 before it sends a final report to the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In January a former FEMA administrator, James Lee Witt,
produced a report stating that emergency evacuation plans in the event of
a nuclear disaster at Indian Point "are not able to protect the public from
an unacceptable dose of radiation." The Witt report, commissioned by New
York Governor George Pataki in response to growing citizen concerns, found
the regional evacuation plans were inadequate.
A broad coalition of over 40 local, regional and national
environmental and citizens groups has formed the Indian Point Safe Energy
Coalition.
These groups are calling for immediate shutdown of the
Indian Point nuclear reactors, securing of the irradiated "spent" fuel rods
stored on site, an independent review of the safety of any future plant operations,
and in opposing certification of what they say is an ineffective and unworkable
evacuation plan.
NUCLEAIRES !