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DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi II nuclear power plant

DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi 11 nuclear power plant By Eartha Jane Melzer 4/7/09 According to plant report, the water level in the reactor vessel fell to 162 inches during March 28 shutdown but Fermi spokesman says he doesn’t think that ‘necessarily indicates that there was any loss of water level at all. An incident involving a nuclear reactor going into “hot shutdown” at DTE Energy’s Fermi II power generation station in Monroe County late last month went largely unnoticed locally and is raising questions about what exactly happened at the plant. DTE officials have minimized the incident,…………………………

Michael Keegan, a nuclear power critic who lives near the Fermi II plant said that he learned of the incident through a notice on the NRC website.

Keegan, who is among the individuals trying to block the construction of an additional reactor at the Fermi complex, said that locals are “salivating” at the prospect of jobs in building the new plant. He said that he finds the lack of local media on the situation disturbing.

“It’s kind of peculiar,” he said. “You see [this incident] is picked up by Reuters and you can read about it in New York but you can’t read about it in your home town.”…………………..

Jim Riccio, a Greenpeace nuclear policy analyst said he is not surprised that a utility spokesman would try to play down a drop in reactor vessel water levels.

“He wants to make you believe that splitting atoms is something safe, but its not,” Riccio said. “The risk is that if the water levels go too low you uncover the core and you start to melt down, that is what happened at Three Mile Island,” referring to the 1979 partial core meltdown at the nuclear power station near Harrisburg, Pa.

Michigan Messenger » DTE seeks to downplay incident at Fermi II nuclear power plant

April 8, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium