Liquified Natural Gas, VX chemical nerve agents and Nuclear Plant problems

[cyberpj]

The Delaware and New Jersey coasts and the river we share just get better and better, don't they?

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Scientists’ group wants PSEG to delay restarting Hope Creek

By JEFF MONTGOMERY / The News Journal
11/18/2004

A national science organization called on PSEG Nuclear today to postpone a restart of the Hope Creek nuclear power plant until the utility overhauls one of the reactor’s largest cooling water pumps.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Wednesday his group is concerned that the utility was needlessly risking plant damage or a nuclear catastrophe by postponing major repairs to the pump system, one of two near the bottom of the 1,050 megawatt reactor, which is located along the Delaware River opposite Augustine Beach.

The pump involved continuously recirculates cooling water through the reactor core and is capable of moving more than 40,000 gallons per minute. Safety planners rank its potential failure as one of the “worst case” scenarios used to guide the design of plant backup and safety systems.

PSEG officials provided a top-level briefing on the problem Wednesday, but Lochbaum said the findings left him “more convinced that restarting Hope Creek without replacing the “B” recirculation pump shaft would be a gamble far larger than any wagered in Atlantic City.”

http://www.delawareonline.com/updates/Scientistsgroup.html