North Anna Nuclear Plant Forced To Vent Steam Following Power Failure From Virginia Earthquake

The Intel Hub
By Alexander Higgins
August 24, 2011

The North Anna nuclear power plant, hit by the Virginia Earthquake, was forced to release steam after losing electricity and a generator used to cool the plant failed.

Earlier today, two of the nuclear power plants at the epicenter of today’s 5.9 earthquake were taken offline due to a power outage.

The cooling functions at those plants were switched to run off emergency backup generators. 1 of the 4 generators failed within minutes despite an earlier NRC inspection and certification the generators were fit to use in the event of an emergency such as the one that happened today.

Backup Generator Cooling Nuclear Power Plant Shutdown By Virginia Quake Fails

The NRC is now reporting that one of the four back up generators powering the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant has failed after the 5.9 Virginia earthquake.

There has been a series of unusual events at nuclear power plants across the nation from North Carolin to Virgina following today’s 5.9 earthquake that struck with an epicenter near Mineral, Virginia’s North Anna nuclear power plant.

The earthquake caused power outages at the North Anna plant which forced workers to shutdown the reactors and switch to emergency backup generator’s to cool the nuclear fuel rods at the reactor.

While the NRC supposedly tested and certified the safety and functionality at the nuclear plant following the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the NRC is now reporting that one of the backup generators at the plant failed just moments after being started.

As reported earlier, the media initially ignored reporting on the status of the North Anna nuclear power plant near the epicenter of today’s Virgina earthquake.

Media Silent On Fate Of Anna Nuclear Plant At Epicenter Of 5.9 Mineral Virginia Earthquake

A massive 5.9 earthquake, the largest ever in recorded history, which has been felt across the U.S. from Colorado To Massachusetts, has an epicenter near Mineral Virginia’s Anna Nuclear Power Plant.

Read more…

Soon after the media began reporting on the status of plant saying that the plants electrical power had been cut-off and the spent fuel pools at the reactors were being cooled by power supplied by emergency backup generators at the nuclear plant.

Are You Prepared? Nitro Pak Freeze Dry Food(Ad)

Two Nuclear Reactors Taken Offline, 9 Declare Unusual Events, After Virginia Earthquake

After raising the question as to why the media has been silent on the fate of the North Anna Virginia nuclear reactors we learn the earthquake has actually taken 9 nuclear plants offline.

Read more…

CNN is now reporting that, according the NRC one of the four emergency generators providing electricity to cool the reactors has failed. The generator failure even comes after the NRC reviewed them and said they were in ready working order following the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan.

[...]

Read The Rest

Now CNN reports that the nuclear power plant was forced to vent steam into the atmosphere, which I assume  was a step needed to relieve pressure inside the overheating reactor to prevent a hydrogen explosion like the ones that occurred at the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

The report on the release of steam from the North Anna nuclear plant oddly quotes  a county spokesperson instead of an official from the plant or an official from the NRC.

The earthquake triggered the automatic shutdown of a nuclear power plant less than 20 miles from the epicenter after it lost electricity. The quake signaled “unusual events” at 12 other nuclear facilities across the East Coast and Michigan, U.S. authorities reported.

Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant shut down after the first tremors. [Louisa County spokeswoman Amanda] Reidelbach  said the plant vented steam, but there was no release of radioactive material. Dan Stoddard, senior vice president of nuclear operations for Dominion, said there was no damage to the spent fuel pool.

Officials were restoring full power to the site, which was operating on diesel generators. Stoddard said that might happen by late Tuesday, but that was before the evening aftershock. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was monitoring the plant.

[...]

Source: CNN

CNN did not report on why was the plant forced to release steam when NRC officials reported the plant was in stable condition and operating normally on the back up generators.

Energy News posted the following photo of the reactor venting steam.

ABC News also reports on the incident with an interview with famed nuclear physicist Michio Kaku:

Sawyer: [...] When you have to go to the backup to the backup that doesn’t sound good.

Michio Kaku, Physicist: Not good at all. We just dodged a bullet on this one. There are 4 backup pumps, one of them is out… if all four go out then you are on the road to a full scale meltdown [...]

The  EPA radnet radiation monitors in the area, which display radiation data controlled and supplied by the government, has not  shown any radiation spikes in the areas surrounding the epicenter of the earthquake.

The original  Mineral Virginia earthquake ha so far been followed by four aftershocks. Experts warn that aftershocks continued for weeks  following the 5.9 earthquake that hit nearby Blacksburg in 1897.

The following aftershocks have been officially reported by the USGS.

At 2:46:50 pm, a 2.8 magnitude aftershock was felt in Louisa. According to the USGS, the epicenter was five miles southwest of the Town of Mineral and approximately one mile from the center of the original earthquake (37.931°N, 77.935°W). Read the USGS report on the first aftershock here.

At 3:20:26 pm, a 2.2 magnitude aftershock was recorded approximately eight miles southwest of Mineral. Read the USGS report here.

At 8:04:36 pm, a 4.2 magnitude aftershock once again hit near the Town of Mineral. According to the USGS, the epicenter was approximately six miles south of Mineral along Route 522/Cross County Road (37.917°N, 77.891°W). You can find the USGS report on the strongest aftershock so far, here.

At 12:45:26 am Wednesday, a 3.4 magnitude aftershock was recorded seven miles south of Mineral (37.925°N, 77.994°W). It had a depth of three miles. Information on the fourth aftershock can be found here.

Follow @IntelHub