WB7: I don't know about you, every day one of the first items in my routine is to google the words "unusual event." Here is what came up today...

AN "UNUSUAL EVENT" AP-A spokesman for a Washington nuclear power plant says a small amount of hydrogen gas ignited in a six-inch flame Thursday when workers cut into the pipe.

Columbia Generating Station declared an "unusual event," evacuated plant areas near the pipe for about 90 minutes, and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Energy Northwest spokesman Mike Paoli says no one was injured in the one second-long "puff" of gas that had been trapped in the pipe in the plant's non-nuclear turbine building.

Paoli says there's was "no association whatsoever with the reactor building or radiation."

An "unusual event" describes a condition that could potentially compromise normal safety levels, the least serious of four NRC emergency classifications.

This got me curious so I went and checked what the NRC nuclear emergency classifications are.

"Both nuclear power plants and research and test reactors use the following emergency classifications:

Notification of Unusual Event—Events that indicate potential degradation in the level of safety of the plant are in progress or have occurred. No release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring is expected unless further degradation occurs.

Alert—Events that involve an actual or potential substantial degradation in the level of plant safety are in progress or have occurred. Any releases of radioactive material are expected to be limited to a small fraction of the limits set forth by the EPA.

Site Area Emergency—Events that may result in actual or likely major failures of plant functions needed to protect the public are in progress or have occurred. Any releases of radioactive material are not expected to exceed the limits set forth by the EPA except near the site boundary.

General Emergency ("GE")— GE Events that involve actual or imminent substantial core damage or melting of reactor fuel with the potential for loss of containment integrity are in progress or have occurred. Radioactive releases can be expected to exceed the limits set forth by the EPA for more than the immediate site area."

So as you can see, there really is no cause for concern, until the shit really hits the fan. 

The following poll results were reported by the AP today. "The poll finds that a fourth of those surveyed were highly confident that the US government is prepared to handle a nuclear emergency, while almost three fourths were only somewhat or not confident.

But many people doubt such an emergency will happen in this country."

WB7: Sound familiar? I have prepared the following illustrative examples as a public service to ZH readers. Remember, in case of a GE Event...walk don't run.

AN "UNUSUAL EVENT"

A "GE EVENT"

And now for something completely different...