nuclear-news

Michigan not immune from nuclear danger

Reminders of the Risks of Nuclear Power Come From Past/Present, Near/Far, HUFFINGTON POST, Patrick Geans- 03/ 1/2012 As we come up on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan, reports are still emerging about the way the Japanese government kept critical information from their own public in the wake of one of the worst nuclear catastrophe’s the world has ever seen.

Likewise with three nuclear sites in the state of Michigan, we should also keep in mind other reminders about the potentially grave risks inherent to nuclear facilities closer to home…..
There are currently three nuclear power facilities in the state: Cook in Bridgman, Palisades in South Haven and Fermi in Newport — just 40 miles south of Detroit. All three power plants are located in southern Michigan along the shores of the Great Lakes, and provide 27 percent
of the state’s energy.

As we all saw last year with Fukushima, all nuclear plants have to be located near large bodies of water because water plays a key role in both the production and containment of nuclear energy. Michigan’s location in the heart of the Great Lakes region means the old NIMBY
(Not In My Backyard) game of environmental injustice is one Metro Detroiters should not lose sight of. Just ask the residents of another of the world’s great cities, Tokyo…..

On October 5, 1966 the Fermi 1 reactor suffered a partial meltdown
caused by a blockage in one of its spigots. The blockage caused an
insufficient amount of coolant to enter and the problem went unnoticed
by plant operators until some of the plants fuel rods reached 700
degrees causing them to melt.
The Fermi plant is owned by DTE Energy and maintained by the Detroit
Edison Company. DTE filed an application to build a third reactor,
Fermi 3, at a cost of $10 billion in 2008, but have been thwarted so
far by the efforts of local citizens on the basis that it would
threaten Lake Erie. Somehow, I’m betting that we’ve not heard the end
of this story.

Meanwhile on the western side of the state’s southern shoreline there
have been even more recent developments. Earlier this month, the
Palisades nuclear power plant received a downgrade of its facility
from federal regulators…..   There’s only one other reactor in the
country with a lower rating: the Brown’s Ferry unit in Athens,
Georgia. It stands alone with that distinction……
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-geansali/michigan-nuclear-plants-safety_b_1314904.html

March 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA