If this had happened only three weeks earlier, when the backup system was offline, the reactor operators would have been forced to attempt to cool the core with regular city water, which is considered by experts to be less suitable for cooling the reactor.įull text of the letter can be found below: Underscoring the significance of the backup cooling system, only three weeks after the discovery of the broken pipe forced the backup cooling system offline, the reactor experienced an unexpected shutdown and the backup system was used to cool the reactor. The backup cooling system was taken offline for several days while the leaking section of the buried pipe was dug up and replaced. Such unexpected shutdowns occur on average once a year at all nuclear power plants. The broken pipe was part of the primary backup cooling system, which must cool the reactor during any unexpected shutdown. The aging buried infrastructure at Indian Point cannot be ignored by the NRC and should be a major consideration in Indian Point's re-licensing process." "The recent incident indicates a serious potential for disaster that must be understood and sufficiently monitored to prevent problems. population living within 50 miles of Indian Point, any breakdown there would be catastrophic," said Rep. ![]() "The NRC has a duty to protect the public and serve as a watchdog. "We need to make sure these critical safety systems are inspected before its too late." "This leak demonstrates that the system for detecting such leaks is profoundly inadequate and requires an urgent update," said Chairman Markey. According to media reports, the broken pipe had not been inspected since 1973, when the reactor was built. On February 16, a 1.5 inch hole was discovered in a buried cooling water pipe, which had already leaked 100,000 gallons, at the Indian Point nuclear reactor. John Hall (D-N.Y.) sent a letter yesterday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioning the process for inspecting buried pipes critically important to the cooling systems at our nation's nuclear power plants. ![]() Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee and Rep. In letter to NRC, lawmakers call system for inspecting pipes at plants nationwide "profoundly inadequate."
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