Comment: Nukes are always bragging about no one has been killed! Wrong, great article! However, the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl has killed people but the governments protect the nukes!
Web Posted: 09/04/2009 12:00 CDT
By John Tedesco- Express-News
As CPS Energy seeks to invest more than $5 billion in nuclear power, the public utility repeatedly has claimed no one ever has been harmed by a nuclear power plant accident.
But the sweeping claim ignores an explosion at an experimental military nuclear facility in Idaho in 1961 that killed three men.
The SL-1 plant near Idaho Falls was a prototype built for remote arctic regions, according to government reports — a far cry from modern commercial plants that have numerous safeguards.
But when asked about the accident Thursday, a CPS official acknowledged the utility needs to revise its claims.
“It's an anomaly of a test reactor,” said Jim Nesrsta, vice president of power plant construction at CPS. “And you know, that was in 1961. We really haven't seen anything like that since then. But we need to clarify that statement.”
In public meetings being held across San Antonio, CPS Energy has been urging the public to support a proposed $5.2 billion expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear plant, which CPS partly owns, in Matagorda County.
“There has never been a fatality at a nuclear power plant in the United States, ever, ever,” said Mike Kotara, CPS' vice president in charge of energy development, at a public meeting Wednesday attended by more than 100 people. “That's a pretty awesome track record for nuclear power.”
Kotara has made that claim at past meetings, and CPS also provides the public with a brochure that states: “No person or community in the U.S. has been harmed by nuclear power plant operations. Nuclear plants in the U.S. are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and they meet the agency's stringent safety standards.”
After Kotara's comment was published in a report in the San Antonio Express-News, two readers posted comments on the newspaper's Web site that linked to accounts of SL-1.
A May 15, 1961, report about the incident written for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission states that three military men were assembling the reactor control rods when a steam explosion occurred.
The blast killed the three — one man was thrown 13 feet above the reactor head and was impaled. The explosion also caused extensive damage to the reactor and produced “high radiation levels” at the site, according to the report.
Kotara's receptionist said he was tied up in meetings Thursday. Nesrsta returned a reporter's calls and acknowledged claims by CPS were too sweeping — and not just in regards to the SL-1 accident.
“Obviously there are industrial accidents at any kind of large industrial facility,” he said.
In 2005, the STP nuclear plant reported a contract worker fell about 10 feet from a ladder and was transported to a Houston hospital by LifeFlight helicopter. The plant's report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the worker was in stable condition.
Idell Hamilton contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/Nuke_safety_claim_is_wrong.html
Web Posted: 09/04/2009 12:00 CDT
By John Tedesco- Express-News
As CPS Energy seeks to invest more than $5 billion in nuclear power, the public utility repeatedly has claimed no one ever has been harmed by a nuclear power plant accident.
But the sweeping claim ignores an explosion at an experimental military nuclear facility in Idaho in 1961 that killed three men.
The SL-1 plant near Idaho Falls was a prototype built for remote arctic regions, according to government reports — a far cry from modern commercial plants that have numerous safeguards.
But when asked about the accident Thursday, a CPS official acknowledged the utility needs to revise its claims.
“It's an anomaly of a test reactor,” said Jim Nesrsta, vice president of power plant construction at CPS. “And you know, that was in 1961. We really haven't seen anything like that since then. But we need to clarify that statement.”
In public meetings being held across San Antonio, CPS Energy has been urging the public to support a proposed $5.2 billion expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear plant, which CPS partly owns, in Matagorda County.
“There has never been a fatality at a nuclear power plant in the United States, ever, ever,” said Mike Kotara, CPS' vice president in charge of energy development, at a public meeting Wednesday attended by more than 100 people. “That's a pretty awesome track record for nuclear power.”
Kotara has made that claim at past meetings, and CPS also provides the public with a brochure that states: “No person or community in the U.S. has been harmed by nuclear power plant operations. Nuclear plants in the U.S. are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and they meet the agency's stringent safety standards.”
After Kotara's comment was published in a report in the San Antonio Express-News, two readers posted comments on the newspaper's Web site that linked to accounts of SL-1.
A May 15, 1961, report about the incident written for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission states that three military men were assembling the reactor control rods when a steam explosion occurred.
The blast killed the three — one man was thrown 13 feet above the reactor head and was impaled. The explosion also caused extensive damage to the reactor and produced “high radiation levels” at the site, according to the report.
Kotara's receptionist said he was tied up in meetings Thursday. Nesrsta returned a reporter's calls and acknowledged claims by CPS were too sweeping — and not just in regards to the SL-1 accident.
“Obviously there are industrial accidents at any kind of large industrial facility,” he said.
In 2005, the STP nuclear plant reported a contract worker fell about 10 feet from a ladder and was transported to a Houston hospital by LifeFlight helicopter. The plant's report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the worker was in stable condition.
Idell Hamilton contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/Nuke_safety_claim_is_wrong.html
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.