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Arkansas Nuclear Facility Offline Following Fire, Possible Explosion
No tsunami or earthquake but Entergy's Arkansas nuclear facility is offline...
- *ENTERGY: ARKANSAS NUCLEAR ONE OFFLINE AFTER TRANSFORMER FIRE
- *ENTERGY SAYS UNIT 2 OFFLINE, UNIT 1 REMAINS ONLINE
Reassuringly, Entergy explains there was "no damage to the actual nuclear reactor," for now.
Authorities are responding to a fire that was reported Monday morning at an Entergy auxiliary transformer at Arkansas Nuclear One Unit Two in Russellville, company spokesman Mike Bowling said.
The blaze started about 7:50 a.m. after there was a "fault in the transformer that resulted in the fire," Bowling said.
The facility's Unit Two is offline, but Unit One is still online, Bowling said. No injuries have been reported, and the fire has been contained.
The auxiliary transformer is an electrical device that transfers energy and is not a nuclear portion of the plant, Bowling said.
The London Fire Department and Entergy's onsite responders are working the scene.
Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said that the fire was not extinguished within the 15 minutes of detection.
"The auxiliary transformer exploded in Unit Two, and there was fire within the protected area," he said.
Gov. Mike Beebe said after a speech Monday at the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Directors' Winter Conference in Little Rock that he had been briefed on the fire and that there was "no damage to the actual nuclear reactor."
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Bush's fault.
Within 15 minutes of the time an emergency is declared at Arkansas
Nuclear One, Entergy Operations, Inc. must notify state officials.
State officials can then notify the public of an emergency within 15
minutes by use of the Emergency Warning System. You will hear a
steady siren signal lasting about three (3) minutes. If you have a Tone
Alert radio, it will be activated. STAY CALM!
http://www.healthy.arkansas.gov/programsServices/preparedness/Documents/EmergencyInstructions.pdf
You didn't build that!
But if you like your nuclear facility, you can keep it (now).
I'm not saying this isn't a legitimate news story, but please people; we need to stand up to the onslaught of negative press on nuclear power. Nuclear power is by far the most effective and safe source of green energy and we simply have to support its development if we want to protect the world from climate change.
I disagree completely. Nuclear energy, in its present form (LWRs equipped with basically unprotected spent fuel pools) looks to me like the way the human race is going to commit collective suicide.
Thorium-based nuclear power might theoretically be safer, but we don't have that right now.
Stocking stuffer
New GQ GMC-300 Nuclear Radiation Detector Data Recorder Beta Gamma Ray Detectionhttp://www.amazon.com/GQ-GMC-300-Radiation-Detector-Detection/dp/B006X3WNLC/ref=pd_sim_sbs_indust_2
So who are the poor bastards that reside down wind of the disaster?
Actually Thorium reactors have been around since the 1950's. They are much safer and cheaper. The only problem is they don't produce weapons-grade plutonium as a byproduct like our current reactors do, so that simply won't do...
Exactly, if thorium is such a cool business, why nobody does it?
Nuclear power exists only because of the dual use. It exists only, because it is sanctioned by the government through a liability cap. Otherwise no operator could afford the insurance premiums. Also the claim that nuclear power is "clean" is bullshit. Studies show that burning natural gas in modern gas plants generates the same amount of carbon emissions compared to the nuclear infrastructure.
Fukushima and all nuclear power plants are good for only one thing:
Housing politicians, bankers and tax collectors.
Actually Thorium reactors have been around since the 1950's. They are much safer and cheaper.
Nonsense. There are no thorium-fueled reactors and there never have been ... officially of course, because naval nuclear is very good at keeping secrets
The only things that "have been around since the 1950s" have been proponents of the concept, but nobody knows how safe and cheap they'd be unless we built them and gained operational experience.
MHTGR looked good on paper but Ft. St. Vrain didn't do very well, did it?
http://http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/contract/cr6839/
A reactor operated in Germany between 1983 and 1989 (THTR-300), and two (or three if you count the rocket engine one) operated in the US. Westinghouse has one in partnership in Norway. China (in development) and India ( Kakrapar-1 reactor) are headed the molten salt way as well. Alvin Weinberg will be vindicated and rediscovered some day...
Long thorium? That's craaaazy talk. Until it isn't.
Beat me to it. Here's a quick article on it, elaborating on what you just said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9784044/China-blazes-trail-for-clean-nuclear-power-from-thorium.html
Trampy's statement is technically correct in that commercially the technology was never refined to the levels needed, but it wasn't exactly pushed either, and for the most part largely ignored. The energy demands of China and the world no longer allow it to ignore any options these days.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the spent (used-up) uranium fuel rods placed in storage pools on site waiting for someone, anyone to dispose of are actually useful {(as a secondary fuel blend?( u-235/ u-233)} in a Thorium Nuclear Reactor, today? Cleaner nuclear power is now on the Dept. of Energy's (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commision (NRC) ?agenda?.
ref: "Cleaner Nuclear Power?" 11/27/07 by Peter Fairley http://www.technologyreview.com/news/409099/cleaner-nuclear-power/
and this, "Nuclear Plants Powered by Spent Fuel" 12/13/12 http://news.discovery.com/tech/alternative-power-sources/nuclear-reactor-powered-spent-fuel-121109.htm
Lastly, uranium is big business with huge profit margins controlled by a(?) few!?! But, Thorium is everywhere and 'DIRT Cheap'!
The OPEC's of the world?,... with all the big-players in solidary (friend or foe always can compromise [agree] on one thing, control the flow?)-- have set a 'Price Floor' for a bbl/oil? Decrypted for those not in the know, oil prices are never going back down because the commodity is showing signs of depletion as they (Oil Barron's) will brainwash the public with MSM propaganda, starting with Russia media PR coup today. jmo
Thorium is the Future and China and Russia are years ahead,... isn't that nice for the Marxist'`Utility', out yonder?
Beat me to it. Here's a quick article on it, elaborating on what you just said: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/978404... Trampy's statement is technically correct in that commercially the technology was never refined to the levels needed, but it wasn't exactly pushed either, and for the most part largely ignored. The energy demands of China and the world no longer allow it to ignore any options these days.
@BudFox2012, Thank You! You're the kind of person I've been hoping would email me using the PGP key in my Bio. It's very rare to find another person who is well-versed in nuclear safety issues.
Despite Ft. St. Vrain, MHTGR was one of the three reactor designs considered by DOE in the formal EIS process (all public record with public meetings at all three possible sites) for it's ~1990 New Production Reactor (NPR) program to build a new tritium production reactor when the SRS (HWR) K reactor was on its last legs, at the end before its retirement running extremely unstable at 30% power called for (stupidly IMO) by the DNFSB because accident source terms scale by power level, so the DNFSB reduced the "risk" by ~2/3 on paper, but nobody raised the issue of that reactor's control system only designed to be stable at partial power during startup and shutdown procedures and raisng core-melt probablity by who-knows-what. But that all became moot when we used a different approach to make H-3 and does anyone here know what that was? I doubt it!
Maybe China could develop the thorium concept, but if I were them I'd also be making Pu-239 out of U-238. Areva could build a few of those big French jobbies for them and then they could copy the design, because everything is on paper.
Exactly... Shut these fucking things down already.
Uh....while such news can be over stated and sensationalized.....'green'? Do you know what it takes to mine and process this stuff?
And....safe? We don't need to go there in light of Fukashima.
But one other concern I've always had is having the 'spent' fuel fall into the hands of bad people. And the stock piles just keep growing.
But I am a fan of the 'pebble base' (thorium) reactors.
The Fukushima incident is way overblown. Nuclear disasters are rare and when they have occurred the response from governments has always been swift and professional. The irrational bias against nuclear power that articles like this perpetuate could be responsible for far greater natural disasters as a result of climate change.
Nuclear desasters like Fukushima will happen every 10-20 years. This is what newer scientific studies say. Good luck.
Born Patriot = Million Dollar Bonus
Am I late to the party on this one?
it has to be missing the sarc tag
no one could actually believe what the bornpatriot is spewing
born dickhead,
go the fuck away asshole...not in the mood for your fucking trolling loser bullshit today...fuck off
You kind of remind me of Million Dollar Bonus, only he at least could say ridiculous things in a way that was funny, you just say ridiculous things.
are you a shill, or an imbecile? whichever, fuck you!
Another "green" idiot.
You folks remind me of that major talking about Ben Tre - "We had to kill all life on the planet in order to save it!"
If you think it is so clean and safe, get a job in Fukushima. I heard they are looking for such talent like you.
Born Patriot, you've been misinformed, or you're peddling your own boat.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18155954
http://www.rrjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.1667/RR2629.1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892120/
http://www.brest-ouvert.net/IMG/pdf/Childhood-leukemia.pdf
(that's just a small selection)
IMO Thorium isn't good either:
It's still radioactive (products)
You'll still rely on centralised fuel distribution scemes
Never seen a working, full scale Thorium plant. please show me?
I'm repeating myself but instead the Polywell Fusion reactor design appeals to me.
Just "shelter in place" problem solved.
Shelter in place - out of state.
Off world.
WHAT ABOUT SHELTERING?
Sheltering means to stay indoors. Close all doors and windows. Turn off sources of outside air. Close the fireplace flue if not in use. Remain indoors until told it is safe to go out. And don't forget the duct tape. Use the telephone only for medical, fire, or other extreme emergencies! If traveling in a vehicle, close windows, air vents, and put the air conditioner on the maximum setting if needed.
Always listen to your local radio station or Tone Alert radio for further instructions.
What happens when ReRe the cat regurgitates a radioactive mouse under your bed and you don't happen to notice for a couple of weeks or so?
Just "shelter in 2 metre thick, lead lined concrete bunker" there fixed it for you.
"STAY CALM!" (and mutate on)
Please do not worry.
Sooner or later we will have a major radiation issue and it will be bad.
Obama's fault!
We're always trying to outdo the Japanese.
I wonder if the same contractor(s) involved in wiring up a certain 3 letter datacenter and the substations to power it in the land of jello and string beans was also responsible for the substation wiring where this transformer exploded...........
Too bad G.E. and others squashed the ideas of Tesla. Nuclear power is ridiculously and unnecessarily dangerous.
Nuclear power as it is produced today has only one true purpose, it is a front to produce weapon grade nuclear fuel for bombs. Anything else is a front or byproduct. If it wasn't for weapon purposes they'd use thorium instead to produce nuclear energy.
And of the USA and Israel and Iran know this. 'Splains a lot.
Also, the most expensive way in the world to boil water.
rockafella and rothschild like the side effects.
mutations,cancers and painfull death not to mention the medical fees.
Here's an interesting read (LONG!). I found chapter 15 to be quite interesting. Many people who have come up with "energy machines" have met mysterious and untimely deaths. All quite by accident I'm sure.
http://www.free-energy-info.co.uk/PJKbook.pdf
Ah, some more nuclear power phobia.
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/903
It's from a .gov site so you know it's true.
thanks for that, it shows what to expect from NASA.
they're only putting CO2 use when generating power in that graph.
in reality, nuclear powerplants require large amounts of fossile fuel for uranium mining, processing, transport, buiding (huge, complicated), and of course storing the plutonium safely for a couple of hundred thousand years.
on top of that. CO2 generation of human beings isn't possible as the main cause of the climate change.
which is happening.. but what exactly is happening?
http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2013030153#sta...
and who profits?
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/why-are-carbon-mark...
Dang! I live in Arkansas, and this is the first I've heard of it! But then again, I get all my news from ZH - it's the only news that matters to me!
head to the nearest elementary school and hide under the small wooden desk..........Hurry
Duck and Cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60
And when you get hungry, have an old saltine. When you get thirsty, find the green drums of water from 1973. Bon appetit!
Shit, I've just realized the degree to which we've dated ourselves with this thread. Anyway I've got my daily dose of Geritol and Grecian Formula, who wants them next?
TEPCO to the RESCUE!
LOL. your comment wasn't there when Zi started writing.
Heard the Arkansas tri headed lobster is a treat
Move over. This is a job for Tepco.
Wow, this is funny. All it is a transmission fire. It has nothing to do with the reactor itself
Transmission/Transformer
What's difference does it make?
none since neither are in the reactor area.
Transmission is why hookers are a bad idea.
Transformers are robots in disguise.
I know what you mean ... all this fuss over a teeny-weeny transformer fire. And it might even be that this particular one is benign. But reactors need to be cooled, and spent fuel pools do, too - otherwise they boil. I recall something about Fukushima losing power, which put this planet on the verge of an extinction-level event (for humans at least), that might still take place. So if the wrong transformer happens to blow up, you better hope they have a lot of folks lined up to man the hand pumps.
Essential accessory of this decade: Geiger counter.
It's not just for fashionable nerds and tin foils. I've had three of the things since Chernobyl.
Whew-it's a good thing that security at this nuclear power plant is handled by an American company, thus allaying my fears of subterfuge.
We're turning Japanese, I really think so...
With any luck it will take out the Clinton library and whore house.
Clinton > Bush > Obama.
I sense a trend.
Yeah yeah...blah blah they all serve the same master. It still doesn't change the fact that he's an evil fuck.
That's spelled ho' house.
I thought the library was the whore house. The ladies are filed according to the Dewey decimal system.
Love the smiley/pill faces painted in the smoke stacks.
Pollution = Happy!
War = Peace!
Another nuclear "crisis".
Let's just cut to the chase and acknowledge that this is yet another example of racism.
Somewhere 'lil Bobby Costas is weeping for lack of an American Mandela.
Funny, I had been reading the Wikipedia article on Yell County, AR yesterday on a wiki tangent, and came across the twin county seats of Dardanelle and Danville, which I thought interesting. How many of our aprox. 3140 counties have two seats?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Lake_Dardanelle.jpg
^And there's your reactor^. Sheeesh, everything I read about tends to turn to shit the next day. This has been happening with greater and greater frequency.
So what started that whole tangent? This guy: Archibald Yell. Quite an amazing character. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Yell How many men in America these days become politicians and then still go out and fight the same wars they ask younger men to fight? The correct answer is none of course.
get off the grid!! but the whores in congress wont let you....fuck em all
'Tesla's Industrial-Grade Solar Power Storage System'''The purpose of the storage system is twofold. It lets solar customers shift off the grid during times when energy companies charge their highest rates, and it provides a backup system during power outages.''
''The company has been dragged into fights over the rebates people receive in some states for going solar. And politicians such as Jeff Sessions, the junior Republican senator from Alabama, have started offensives against the company, which will leave you shocked by this last sentence. Southern Co., a utility, is Session’s largest donor.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-06/tesla-s-industrial-grade-solar-...
35 years is a long time for these beasts. This is the second accident at this plant this year.
Entergy is finally closing Vermont Yankee soon:
http://www.entergy.com/vy/
All the 80 some year old women who protested the site for 40 years are going to go to Arkansas now for their fun!
Maybe they will contact TEPCO and bring over some consultants from them. I hear they are doing a smash-up job on Fukishima.
Still looking for the magic words, "There was never any danger".
There, I feel better now.
Wait, what? The Arkies have nukes? That worries me more than the Iranians having nukes.
My first comment ever on Zerohedge. You brought me out of nearly 4 years of lurking. As a native Pope County Arkansan, thanks for your willingness to believe the stereotypes of this area. We love to be thought of in such a manner. It helps keep out the riff-raff.
Wait - you guys are Muslim?
I stopped telling people that I'm from Arkansas when Clinton took office.
Yes, I believe ALL of the stereotypes and I TRULY worry more about Arkansans having the bomb than I do about the Iranians. You're probably wearing your klan robe now, right?
Q: How do you know that the toothbrush was invented in Arkansas?
A: If it was invented in any other state, it would be called the TEETHbrush!
/s
(BTW, I didn't downvote you.)
do not panic as bath house barry said about fuckishima we will keep the people informed as you have a right to know.
everything is fine cos we tell yer or assume it is cos we say nuttin.
but the fact is rothschild wants you yank suckers dead nuclear is perfect as you bankrupt yourselves payin the medical fees.
perfect.
Wait, don't tell me, there's no danger to the public, right?
No damage to the reactor. Ok. If they say so.
What else to say at this point, being in a World controlled by monkeys armed with nuclear weapons?
Transformer explosions are actually fairly common. This is likely not much of a story.
In the New Normal pretty much anything exploding is fairly common!
Oklahoma had a 4.5 eq yesterday.
Not one of the so-callled anti-nuke groups challenged the big license renewal effort in toto.
I was involved in challenging two of them, but they turned out to be just token opposition that needed a "expert" and I was the foolish pawn
Almost every single one of the damn things had their licenses renewed without a peep.
Anyone stupid enough to live near one of them deserves to get whatever happens to them, but we'll all pay the price somehow or other.
Fuku shit sir.
Luckily the Arkansas River is not important to farming, animal husbandry, recreation, or transportation.
They had some kind of industrial accident in march of 2013 that killed 1 and injured 8. The units were repaired and became operational in August of 2013.
http://rt.com/usa/arkansas-nuclear-plant-accident-170/
As a side note Unit One releases heat directly into Lake Dardanelle.
Sounds like the spent fuel is kept on site.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/04/25/57046.htm
http://enformable.com/2012/03/arkansas-nuclear-one-unit-2-spent-fuel-handling-machine-not-fully-qualified-for-a-seismic-event/
Nice. Driven by plenty of times... and the lake has had some incredible fishing in the past (the fish get a little help on the growing end), not sure about now though...
I'm sure it's fine...
Sharticons bitchez...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNUDoRsDb54
wow
Depends on what size it is and where it is located in the chain of critical components in the station.
Depends on what size it is and where it is located in the chain of critical components in the station.
Here you go. Have fun!
10 CFR 50.69 - Risk-informed categorization and treatment of structures, systems and components for nuclear power reactors.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/10/50.69
§ 50.69
Risk-informed categorization and treatment of structures, systems and components for nuclear power reactors. (a) Definitions. Risk-Informed Safety Class (RISC)-1 structures, systems, and components (SSCs) means safety-related SSCs that perform safety significant functions. Risk-Informed Safety Class (RISC)-2 structures, systems and components (SSCs) means nonsafety-related SSCs that perform safety significant functions. Risk-Informed Safety Class (RISC)-3 structures, systems and components (SSCs) means safety-related SSCs that perform low safety significant functions. Risk-Informed Safety Class (RISC)-4 structures, systems and components (SSCs) means nonsafety-related SSCs that perform low safety significant functions. Safety significant function means a function whose degradation or loss could result in a significant adverse effect on defense-in-depth, safety margin, or risk.Why did I know it would be an Entergy plant?
Here is my best case presented to date on how Fukushima was a Nuclear explosion, and the proof of how much uranium and plutonium was "gifted" to the world.
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2013/12/fukushima-was-nuclear-explo...
It should be a law that any CEO of a nuclear or chemical plant must give press interviews while standing in front of the plant.
that truck stolen in Mexico with radioactive cobalt-60 still MIA.
How about before we expand nuclear power we have a place to safely store spent rods for thousands of years instead of putting them in water pools next to the reactors like at Fukashima.
Because Harry Reid doesn't want to pollute the lush paradise of Nevada. And he didn't get enough kickbacks.
Mostly not enough kickbacks.
How about before we expand nuclear power we have a place to safely store spent rods for thousands of years instead of putting them in water pools next to the reactors like at Fukashima.
Umm. Those water pools are necessary because SNF taken out of a running reactor is way too "hot" to be transported except onsite to a nearby water pool. Back in the olden days of 3% enrichment and lower power densities, there were some Type B packages for road or rail transport that could meet the (Title 49) DOT regs for some SNF after five years of onsite storage ... but, with enrichment edging closer to 5% and higher neutron flux creating higher "burnup" and more fission products, the SNF is hotter than before and much of it would need ten years of cooling before it could be safely transported long distances following DOT Title 49 transport regulations in a Title 10 NRC-licensed "Type B" package withstanding 30-ft drop, 30-min fire, etc.
But whether it's cooled five years versus ten years is nothing (and licensing a package and authorizing shipping campaigns); all that is nothing compared to the Big Picture, nicely summarized here: http://www.bc.edu/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/bcealr/28_1/05_TXT.htm
Of course we do not have a licensed SNF repository such as Yucca Mountain, which Harry Reid was right to kill because Congress didn't follow its own directions in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 stating that the (Title 10) DOE shall use a science-based approach (following National Academy of Sciences, NAS guidance) in building two (TBD) different repositories (each selected after studying 5 sites and recommending 3 of those 5 to the President) that would meet (to be determined, TBD) Title 40 EPA standards (with EPA mandated to also follow NAS guidance) for a DESIGN containing releases to the environment (per EPA's Title 40 Atomic Energy Act authority) overseen by NAS, and then whoever operated it for DOE, no doubt under a M&O contract, would then meet (TBD) NRC standards for operation and closure (per NRC's Title 10 Atomic Energy Act authority).
But then in 1987 Congress overrode that entire Rube-Goldberg-complexity science-based selection process by declaring that it would be Yucca Mountain, no ifs, ands, or buts. There was less than a year before the acceptance deadline and all anyone knew for sure was where it would be located. Would it be required to contain releases for 300 years, 10,000 years, or a million years? Good question! Regulations, designs, further regulations, further designs, further regulations, yada yada ... all in a year. And this was no Manhattan Project with J. Robert Oppenheimer in charge and General Lesley Groves giving him absolutely everything he wanted.
DOE was to start accepting commercial SNF for permanent disposal no later than January 1998, which most properly say means a 1/31/1998 deadline. The NWPA was amended in 1987 to require only one site, not two, but the January 1998 deadline remains to this day, so DOE is paying a number of nuclear utilities for their costs of onsite dry cask storage because DOE is not meeting the January 1998 deadline, and its financial liabilities to various utilities are being litigated in multiple courts per link above.
Congress gave all those government agencies less than six years (1982 to January 1998) to do all that stuff, with DOE, EPA, NRC, DOT, and NAS all nicely getting along and working together smoothly (as always) to site, license, build, transport the waste there, operate, and then close a repository ... with a site and a design based on SCIENCE! But then Congress chose Nevada because it had the fewest members of Congress, but that was before Harry Reid had control. Pretty funny science, huh?
What's wrong with that picture of all those agencies working togeether smoothly to issue "harmonious" regulations with each following the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) for implementing its own separate regulations in each's own sphere of authority and responsibilty, and all of them in good measure subject to the overarching Title 40 Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations to follow the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for any actions which could potentially impact the environment (i.e. CX, EA, or EIS)?
Eventually they'll do the sensible thing and revoke Jimmy Carter's ban on reprocessing commercial SNF, which never had the force of law, anyway. Our own DOE reprocesses its own and the Navy's SNF. Everyone else is doing it so why not us? Because there's more money to be made in piling up all this waste than there would be in reprocessing it and making it into MOX fuel. Safety has nothing to do with it; it's all about the money.
I bet George Washington flogged his dog raw when he read this one!