Problems at another US nuclear power station

More Problems At Palisades Nuclear Power Plant

Operators of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Michigan say they removed it from service because of a water leak.

CBS,

5 May 2013

The plant operators said they took the plant off-line Sunday morning for inspections and repairs to the safety injection/refueling water tank. They said there is no risk to the public.

The plant is along Lake Michigan’s shoreline in Van Buren County’s Covert Township, about 80 miles east-northeast of Chicago.

Plant operators said they acted after “water leakage from the tank exceeded a site threshold.”

The plant is owned by New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. has been under extra scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after numerous safety issues and shutdowns.

The latest problems come after the plant shut for several days in February for work on its cooling water heat exchanger system.....

NRC: Radioactive water enters lake

A federal safety official says that 79 gallons of "very slightly radioactive water" from a leaky tank at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant spilled into Lake Michigan.

Wood TV,

6 May, 2013

Operators of the southwestern Michigan plant shut it down Sunday after discovering a growing leak Saturday in a water storage tank.

The Covert Township plant has been under heightened Nuclear Regulatory Commission attention for a series of breakdowns over two years.

NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng told The Associated Press on Monday that investigators determined that 79 gallons was diluted when it entered a basin holding thousands of gallons of non-radioactive water before entering the lake. She said there's no human health risk.

Still, the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office told 24 Hour News 8 that as soon as news of the leak broke, it started receiving 911 calls from concerned residents.

"The levels of radioactive materials there are so low it's actually virtually undetectable," Terry Young, a spokesman for Entergy -- the New Orleans-based company that owns Palisades -- said.

But residents like Don Burrous are skeptical and concerned.

"Somebody is not doing their job down there," he said.

He has lived near the plant his whole life and says any amount of radioactive water into Lake Michigan is unacceptable.

"Diluted is diluted but it's still contaminated. And we may not know the effects this year and we may not know them for two years," he said.

Don and Kathe Dempster, however, aren't too worried about such low, diluted levels of radiation.

"This is a big pond out here," Don Dempster said. said.

They've lived along the lakeshore for 42 years and can see the plant from their house.

"We feel very confident that the power plant is running ahead of the issues and taking care of them. I think the federal and state regulations are overseeing that so it's not something they can do under the table," Kathe Dempster said.

Meanwhile, emergency responders remain at the ready just in case. The plant has its own fire brigade on site and Covert Township and South Haven fire departments coordinate and train on a regular basis for any scenario.

"We work anywhere from a small event to where we have to work on trying to get people evacuated out of a five-, 10-, 15-mile radius," South Haven Area Emergency Services Fire Chief Ronald Wise explained.

The NRC is sending a metallurgy expert to locate the source of the leak, the AP reports. The plant remains shut down.