Fermi II nuclear plant at risk during an earthquake
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is warning that the reactor it built for DTE Energy’s Fermi II nuclear power plant may not shut down properly during an earthquake.
The Pittsburgh Tribune reports that Fermi II is among 35 GE reactors where the company is recommending testing to determine what level of friction would interfere with the insertion of control rods into the reactor core during an earthquake.
“„“There is no discussion of a recall of any control rods at this point,” Neil Sheehan, a Philadelphia-based spokesman for the commission, said in an e-mail. “The focus is on testing as evaluations continue on whether any modifications are necessary.”
“„The issue is contained in a series of reports to the federal agency dating to December 2010, Sheehan said. The affected plants don’t include Dominion Resources Inc.’s North Anna in Virginia, which remains shut because of a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered 11 miles away on Aug. 23.
“„The issue is a “low probability event” that became known to the company several months before the March earthquake and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, Michael Tetuan, a spokesman for GE Hitachi in Wilmington, N.C., said in an e-mail.
“„“We are only aware of a small percentage of plants that have exhibited signs of measureable control-blade-to-channel friction and on a relatively few number of control blades,” he said.
Fermi II is one of 23 U.S. nuclear power plants that have the exact same design as the Fukushima, Japan reactors that went into meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami in March.
