Callaway Nuclear Plant south of Fulton, MO experienced an "unusual event"

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: NC-20070908-13301-USA
Date / time: 08/09/2007 17:45:48
Event: Nuclear Event
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of Missouri
City: Unknow
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:

The Callaway Nuclear Plant south of Fulton experienced an "unusual event" late Thursday but resumed generating at full power within 17 minutes, according to a news release from AmerenUE spokeswoman Susan Gallagher.

A relief valve on the reactor coolant system failed, and operators activated an alternate system, the company said. Control systems at the plant detected that water levels flowing into a collection tank exceeded regulatory requirements, which triggered unusual event procedures established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The procedures provide required steps, including notification, investigation and repair. An unusual event is the least significant of four emergency classifications established by the NRC. There was no safety hazard at the plant or for the public, and government regulators were notified, the news release said.

AmerenUE is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. The company serves some 2.4 million electric customers and 1.2 million natural gas customers in Missouri and Illinois.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&cid=13301

[havocmom]

1. hmm

:popcorn: <---- made in solar oven

[jody]

2. I love the use of "unusual event" to classify an incident which should be ignored or one that could

have triggered a nuclear catastrophe.

[Johnson_Shut-ins]

3. Past radioactive leaks at Callaway Plant

Nuclear power can be SAFE but not in Ameren's hands. They run their plants (nuclear, hydro and coal) like Mr. Burns on The Simpsons. Although there are a lot of competent people who work at Callaway Plant, they are unable to make up for the DANGEROUS leadership of Ameren.

In 2004 radioactive acid ate through the wall of a tank which had been ignored for years. The acid then ate through the floor and started dripping into the Radiological Waste Control Room. Information on the incident can be found at the following leak:

http://cid-090c23798d49149b.skydrive.live.com/view.aspx/.Public/Control%20of%20Sulfuric%20Acid%20at%20Callaway%20Plant.doc

Also in the link mentioned above is the state of the Cooling Tower chemical control system. Because of past acid spills and the reckless abandoment of underground pipes containing sulfuric acid, whenever it rains acidic ground water leaches into the cooling tower basement. As the rain passes through the soil its acidity increases one million fold due to all the residual acid which leached into the soil.

In 2005, the greedy upper management of Ameren failed to heed warnings from the engineers and continued to remotely operate the Taum Sauk reservoir even though they knew its safety systems were degraded. On December 14, 2005 operators at Bagnell Dam (100 miles away) were remotely filling the upper reservoir when they allowed it to overtop. The reservoir failed and the resultant wall of water demolished Johnson Shut-ins State Park and nearly killed the superintendent's family. The details of the incident and the Toop family's harrowing ordeal can be found at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2303&id=100000517518338&l=6559c5bfd5


Ameren understaffs the Callaway Plant to such an extent that they cannot cover their Fire Brigade commitments without consistently using large amounts of overtime.

http://cid-090c23798d49149b.skydrive.live.com/view.aspx/.Public/Fire%20Brigade%20Staffing.doc

Nuclear power can be done safely, but we cannot trust the penny pinching management of Ameren to do the right thing.