Water Too Warm to Cool Nuclear Reactor in Connecticut

Just saw this on the RSOE EDIS map..

A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it. Under the reactor’s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water’s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor.

Link

Apparently there has also been similar problems in the midwest due to increasing heat.
If this is a continuing pattern, they're gonna have to figure something out to make it work because I have a feeling this isn't gonna be the only year that they're going to run into this problem..especially with the artic ice starting to melt faster. The earth definitely seems to be heating up a little more than usual. Kinda scary to think that in the past 37 years the plant has been running they haven't had this problem come up.

Another link

this does not sound good. not just because of the reactors. But warmer water temps affect just about everything in a fish's reproductive system. Not to mention that it can affect ph balance etc causing death. Of course we are already seeing mass fish kills..

Originally posted by ML8715
Just saw this on the RSOE EDIS map..

A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it. Under the reactor’s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water’s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor.

Link

Apparently there has also been similar problems in the midwest due to increasing heat.
If this is a continuing pattern, they're gonna have to figure something out to make it work because I have a feeling this isn't gonna be the only year that they're going to run into this problem..especially with the artic ice starting to melt faster. The earth definitely seems to be heating up a little more than usual. Kinda scary to think that in the past 37 years the plant has been running they haven't had this problem come up.

Another link

I guess they have to build cooling tower, but it isn't as effective as using river. Cooling towers are those huge things that are stereotypical to nuclear plants, like in Simpsons

that's really interesting and frightening news. S&F. nuclear power is just bad no matter how you look at it. one more thing to add to the list of reasons why we shouldn't be using it.

this should make the coal industry happy... can not cool the reactors... need power...= build coal plants. not that we would or should, but this might be the rebirth of the coal fueled power plants , either way we are doomed... not a good out come any way you look at it!

Apparently the temperature of the water is an administrative number, the water can be much warmer and still serve the purpose. Nothing to see here except bureaucratic nonsense.

I saw this last night.

My first thought was "Oh damn! I hope that's an easy fix."

My second thought was "1960s equipment?!" I knew those things were old, but good lord, you'd think they'd update some of that stuff once every decade or two. I had heard that those old plants were just ticking timebombs, but I had no idea that some of them were 40+ years old (I thought 20 was more the norm).

Edit: By 20 I meant 30. My mind still thinks 20 years ago was the 1980s

I hope they're going to do the right thing. Shut them down.

reply to post by ML8715


Use one megawatt of the reactor to run cooling coils to cool down the water before it enters. It's only a few degrees. Even a waterfall room would take energy out of the water.

Maybe, they should start to turn these reactors off, and get with an alternative Power source. Accidents happen, and Nuclear ones, are the Worst. Don't fool with Mother Earth.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Millstone can do little to correct the problem. Cooling millions of gallons of water before circulating it in the plant is not an option, he said. "Just hope for a cooling," he said.

Link

Just hope for a cooling?? uhh...what? So their only plan is to just HOPE the water cools down apparently? Sorry, but I don't think "just hope for a cooling" is gonna work for next year if this happens again and the year after, etc. I would think they would maybe attempt to try to figure something out to cool the water or in the one article I saw that they could pull in water from a deeper part where the water is cooler, maybe they should work on that.

And yet the plan is to continue building more plants! This will be how humanity blows intself up and the US continues to stop others from using Nuk power?

OK this is getting very very curious!!!

Check this out:

4 Nuclear Reactors in US Shutdown in Last Few Days as Power Grids Worldwide Expected to Fail Two out of three nuclear power plants in Minnesota have been shut down for unscheduled maintenance.

One of the two nuclear generators at the Prairie Island plant was shut down because its emergency diesel generators suffered exhaust leaks.

Also, one of two of Maryland’s nuclear reactors has been shut down as well.

An excerpt from the Baltimore Sun reads;

Operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland have shut down one of the two reactors there because a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core, causing a reduction in power generation, a plant spokesman said Monday.

But wait, there’s more.

Now a Michigan plant has been shut down as well.

That’s 4 nuclear plants in one day.

An excerpt from Reuters reads;

The 793-MW unit was shut after a leak was identified Aug. 12.

The leak has not resulted in a release of radiation to the environment and is not a threat to public health and safety, the agency said.

Since July, the NRC has been monitoring a gradual increase of unidentified leakage at the reactor and sought safety assurances from Energy on those leaks.

theintelhub.com...

reply to post by antar


With the sink hole situation in Louisiana I have to wonder if this is a big lead up to something really bad.

I am so sick of hearing about nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons. We should be past that by now. We have been overdue for some evolution for quite a while now. Perhaps if we spent nearly as much money on developing new ideas, than we do on blowing # up better we would be making progress.

reply to post by antar


Another one is shut down now in belgium too..

Belgium’s nuclear regulator has questioned the safety of the Electrabel-operated Doel 3 reactor due to cracks in the pressure vessels that have already forced the shutdown of a similar unit at the Tihange nuclear plant. Belgium has halted the 1,006-megawatt Doel 3 reactor until at least the end of August after the discovery of suspected cracks in the pressure vessel. But it is possible that the reactor could be shut down for good.

Link

It just seems weird how all these problems are all happening at once... i mean I know nuclear reactors have problems, have unscheduled shut downs due to things happening...but all these in one week is just weird.

reply to post by ML8715


Aliens giving the alternative!!!