Word: reactors
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...allowing radioactive water to come into contact with the cooling system. The water vaporized and escaped--still radioactive into the atmosphere. As the plant's technicians belatedly tried to lower the water pressure to reduce the leak, a valve stuck, pressure dropped too rapidly and the water in the reactor began to boil. If a backup valve hadn't opened, a "bubble" of steam would have formed within the reactor, possibly uncovering the core--exactly what happened at Three Mile Island in March of 1979. But because the Ginna valve did open, the accident goes down in the Nuclear Regulatory...
...over the dangers of nuclear power has abated but as the Ginna "failure" shows, the safety problems which that accident dramatically highlighted have not. Critical Mass, a Ralph Nader energy watchdog lobby, counted 3804 mishaps due to equipment failure, design flaws, and human error at the nation's 71 reactors in 1980 In 1981, nuclear power plants were shut down for safety reasons one day out of every eight. And signs for the future are ominous Thirty three nuclear plants now report cracking and corrosion in their steam generator tubes--the same problem which caused the Ginna accident...
...these safety problems weren't enough, evidence is mounting that nuclear power--once hailed as "too cheap to meter"--is no longer economically viable. Indeed, since 1975, utilities have ordered only 13 new reactors and have cancelled orders for 50, mainly because of the rising cost of building the plants. Charles Komanoff, a New York energy economist, argues that the capital investment required to build a reactor is almost twice that required to build a coal plant. Soaring costs come partly from the need for greater safety in the wake of Three Mile Island. But more important is the declining...
Although it began like a replay of the crisis at Three Mile Island, the Ginna accident proved far less serious. According to officials from Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., which owns the plant, and engineers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a corroded pipe in the reactor's primary cooling loop that carries radioactive water into the plant's steam generator ruptured, contaminating water in the normally nonradioactive secondary loop. The leak also raised the pressure in the secondary loop, triggering a safety valve, which vented the now radioactive steam into the atmosphere. At the same time, slightly radioactive...
...level of radioactivity outside did not rise appreciably, and within hours the reactor was safely heading toward a "cold shutdown." The plant could be closed for as little as three weeks or as long as three months. During that time, Rochester Gas and Electric will buy power from another company and pass the extra cost along to its customers; electricity bills are expected to rise $5 to $7 a month...