Could BP Oil Disaster Threaten Gulf Power Plants?

© 2010 by Linda Moulton Howe

More than 100 million gallons of crude oil from British Petroleum's unplugged drill hole might already have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. On June 11, 2010, scientists estimated the BP blown-out well a half mile down in the Gulf could have been spewing as much as 2 million gallons of crude a day until the BP cut-and-cap that is now siphoning off some of the gushing oil. [ 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day = 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons a day.]

“The BP oil spill threatens a number of power plants.
If the water supply for these facilities becomes contaminated
with oil, cooling water systems could be damaged.”

- U. S. Dept. of Energy May 12, 2010 Situation Report

Sea bird covered with British Petroleum oil in June 2010
on Louisiana shore after BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling unit
blew up on April 20, 2010, releasing as much as 2 million gallons of crude
oil every day up to BP's recent cut-and-cap maneuver that began capturing
some of the oil flow. [ 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day = 1.5 to 2.5 million
gallons a day.] Image by Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries.

June 12, 2010  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - At approximately 11:00 PM EDT on April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred aboard British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) located 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, and 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. Eleven men working the oil rig died. BP was drilling an exploratory well at the time of the incident. By June 11, 2010, scientists trying to give a reality check on how much oil has erupted from the disastrous mile-deep drill hole stunned the U. S. and the world with an estimate as high as 2 million gallons of crude oil a day, turning the Gulf of Mexico into a toxic marineland and destroying the birds, animals and plant life that live in the delicate wetlands bordering the Gulf shores in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, western Florida and potentially even the east coast of Florida if enough oil gets into the loop current that goes around the southern tip of Florida and back up the East Coast.

A May 12, 2010, “Situation Report” by the U. S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, states: “The oil spill has the potential to impact several electric power generation facilities in the region. A number of power plants have been identified as drawing cooling water directly from the Gulf of Mexico or adjacent salt water sources. If the water supply for these facilities becomes contaminated with oil, cooling water systems could be damaged. DOE continues to monitor the location of the oil slick relative to power plant cooling water intakes. Currently, no impact to regional electric power reliability is anticipated. The operators of the affected facilities are working with the U. S. Coast Guard and others state and local officials to implement plans to protect these waterways.”

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:

• Who is monitoring the sub-surface oil plumes?
• Can special monitoring resources be set up at the Crystal River nuclear plant, and potentially reactors on the Atlantic Coast of Florida?
• How are nuclear plants protecting themselves from the oil, chemical dispersants and dissolved methane now in the sea water?
• What guidance is the NRC providing?
• Has the NRC asked for assistance from NOAA’s National Ocean Service to specifically monitor the behavior and movement of the oil, chemicals and methane near the nuclear plants?
• What federal and state agencies are involved in a coordinated effort?

Interview:

Scott Portzline, Security Consultant, Three Mile Island Alert, Harrisburg, PA:   

“SO WHAT HAPPENS IF GULF OIL GETS INTO THE LOOP CURRENT AND GETS TO MIAMI AND EAST COAST FLORIDA BEACHES?

Yes, that’s a real concern, especially if it is submerged oil at the huge quantities that scientists are describing. Who is monitoring the submerged oil? That’s a very difficult task with the ever-changing currents in the Gulf of Mexico. There are reportedly thousands of oil plumes now. The head of the U. S. Coast Guard describes the spill as being ‘thousands of spills.’

I talked with a spokesman at the NRC this week who said he wasn’t aware of any active monitoring of oily water going to the Crystal River nuclear power plant and he didn’t know how deep the canals are. The more questions I asked, the more I found out that the NRC is perhaps overly confident. But I think the public deserves specific, detailed answers to who is watching out for nuclear power plants that could be affected by the BP oil spill. That’s why we wrote our letter with the press release.

I also just saw that the Dept. of Homeland Security has written a letter to Congress saying their Incident Response Team is running out of money. They have gone through $93 million for the DHS response team and British Petroleum has earned profits of $93 million/day since this disaster began – or something like that. BP has not reimbursed our government even for that amount. This is an international incident on many levels ranging from the environment to economies!

COULD YOU SUMMARIZE WHAT EAST COAST NUCLEAR REACTORS OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA MIGHT BE JEOPARDIZED BY OIL IN THE LOOP CURRENT?

The St. Lucie nuclear power plant and the Turkey Point nuclear power plant each has two reactors. If oil-contaminated water goes into their water intake system unmonitored, unknown, it could foul some of the safety systems that are necessary to cool the condensate that is the secondary loop in a reactor. That is water that is coming from the generators in the form of hot steam and it has to be cooled down and turned back into water. There is another third loop that goes out to the cooling towers. What we’re concerned about is that without proper monitoring of the oil plumes underwater, the nuclear plants could continue running and not be shut down as they should be. Oily water would foul up the systems and cause an emergency situation. In fact, that water if contaminated with oil is used to cool some of the emergency systems and safety systems.

And none of us know what the oil dispersants are going to do to the chemistry of the nuclear power plants and their water systems. The best answer is to shut down the nuclear power plants before the oil plumes get to them and the only way to do that is to properly monitor the submerged oil plumes and surface slicks.

We’ve seen time after time in the past two months since the oil rig exploded how the planning has not been coordinated or adequate. So we’re hoping the public will get some answers by our writing our letter and press release. It’s not an alarmist letter. We are not saying there is going to be a Three Mile Island event. The chances of that are pretty small, but nonetheless, it could happen if the NRC does not take the proper actions.”

Florida Nuclear Reactors That Could Be
Damaged by BP Oil Spill

Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant:

Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant is 24 miles south
of Miami on Biscayne Bay, Florida.

1. Located on Biscayne Bay, 24 miles south of Miami and just east of the Homestead area
2. Two nuclear power units:
1. the first unit began operation in 1972
2. the second unit following in 1973
3. Generates about 1,400 million watts of electricity -- enough power to supply the annual needs of more than 450,000 homes
4. Reactor manufacturer - Westinghouse
5. Turbine Generator Manufacturer - Westinghouse

St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant:

St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant is 8 miles southeast
of Ft. Pierce, Florida, on Hutchinson Island.

1. Located on Hutchinson Island about eight miles southeast of Ft. Pierce
2. Two nuclear power units:
1. Unit 1 began operation in 1976
2. Unit 2 following in 1983
3. Generates about 1,700 million watts of electricity -- enough power to supply the annual needs of more than 500,000 homes
4. Reactor manufacturer - Combustion Engineering
5. Turbine Generator Manufacturer - Westinghouse

Crystal River, Florida Nuclear Power Plant:

Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant is near
Tampa, Florida on the west coast.

The Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant, also simply called the Crystal River Nuclear Power Plant, is a nuclear power plant located in Crystal River, Florida. The power plant is the third plant built as part of the 4,700 acre (19 km²) Crystal River Energy Complex, which contains a single pressurized water reactor, while sharing the site with four fossil fuel power plants. The reactor is rated to produce 914 megawatts of electric power. With a summer generating capacity of 3,140 megawatts (as of April 2002), the complex was the seventh largest electric power generating site in the United States. 

In September 2009 the plant was temporarily shutdown to replace aging steam generators. During the upgrade workers discovered a gap in a concrete containment dome. The NRC is conducting a special inspection to determine the source of the gap.

More Information:

For more information about nuclear power plant problems, please see related Earthfiles reports from 1999 to 2010 in the Earthfiles Archive:

• 10/06/2004 — Is NRC Making Terrorist Work Easier? Radioactive Material Sites On U. S. Government Website
• 04/12/2004 — Part 2: 25 Years After Three Mile Island, Is Another Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Inevitable?
• 04/06/2004 — Part 1: 25 Years After Three Mile Island, Is Another Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Inevitable?
• 05/23/2003 — Memorial Weekend Terrorist Threats - What Happens If A Dirty Bomb Goes Off?
• 06/29/2002 — Missing and Stolen U. S. Radioactive Materials
• 05/25/2002 — Part 1 - U. S. Nuclear Power Plants On Heightened Alert After Nuclear Regulatory Commission Warning
• 02/04/2002 — United States Nuclear Power Plant Security - Is It Effective Against Terrorists?

 

Websites:

DOE May 12, 2010 Situation Report BP Gulf Oil Disaster:
http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/2010_SitRep_4_Deep_Horizon_051210_200PM.pdf

Three Mile Island Alert:  http://www.tmia.com/

Beyond Nuclear:  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

Unplug Salem:  http://www.unplugsalem.org/

International Nuclear Safety Center:  http://www.insc.anl.gov/