Could BP Oil Disaster Threaten Gulf Nuclear Power Plants?

[Ian David]

Oily Water Threat to Florida Nuclear Power Plants?

Nuclear power in the United States is provided by 104 (69 pressurized water reactors
and 35 boiling water reactors) commercial nuclear power plants licensed to operate, producing
a total of 806.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which was 19.6% of the nation's total electric energy consumption in 2008. The United States is the world's largest supplier of commercial nuclear power. In February 2010, the Obama administration approved an $8 billion loan guarantee for the construction of two nuclear reactors in Georgia. If the project goes forward, these would be the
first plants to start construction in the United States since the 1970s.
Map by Int'l. Nuclear Safety Center.

The DOE Situation Report makes no mention of the Crystal River 3 nuclear power plant in Tampa, Florida, or four other nuclear power plants on Florida's East Coast: Turkey Point 3, Turkey Pont 4, St. Lucie 1 and St. Lucie 2.

What would happen to nuclear power plants if oily water got into them? That is also a question formally posed on June 11, 2010, by nuclear power plant watchdogs in a letter to the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U. S. Coast Guard Headquarters. < See complete letter and press release in More Information below.>

Specifically, Scott Portzline, Security Consultant for Three Mile Island Alert, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, Takoma Park, Maryland; and Norm Cohen, Unplug Salem, New Jersey asked:



More:
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1719&category=Environment