Damage to Kentucky nuclear facility

Tornado Damages Paducah Plutonium MOX Fuel Enrichment Facility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhOa1fhAqK4

This would seem to provide some confirmation

Damage assessment continues at storm-damaged Paducah nuclear fuel plant

Courier Journal,

18 November, 2013

Company work crews and state and federal officials on Monday continued to inspect storm damage to the shut-down Paducah nuclear fuel factory that was struck by an apparent tornado Sunday, officials said.

One of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant’s four enrichment production buildings was damaged, as well as adjacent cooling towers and a nearby electrical switch yard, said Jeremy Derryberry, a spokeswoman for plant operator, USEC Inc.

He said there was no release of hazardous or radioactive materials, and that the plant’s safety and monitoring systems were in full operation. The damage was to the exterior of the building only, he said.

A few miles away and across the river in southern Illinois, a tornado with wind speeds estimated as high as 140 miles an hour cut a 250-yard-wide swath of damage through Brookport, leaving two people dead, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robin Smith. One other death was reported just east of Brookport, just north of Paducah.

The U.S. Department of Energy owns the facility, leasing the plant to USEC. Robert E. Edwards III, deputy manager of the energy department’s Portsmouth Paducah Project Office, said the USEC “did what they needed to do.” Edwards also confirmed releases to the air, water or surrounding grounds and described the damage as minor.

“We are tracking it and we are in touch with (USEC),” said Buddy Rogers, spokesman for Kentucky Division of Emergency Management. “The warning bells go off when you hear about something like this, but … it was no big deal.”

Two state environmental officials were at the plant Monday, surveying the damage, said Todd Mullins, who monitors the long-term cleanup as the plant as a regulator for the Kentucky Division of Waste Management.

The plant has been in transition this year. USEC stopped enriching uranium there in June. Only limited plant operations related to inventory management were occurring during the storm, Derryberry said.

The enriching process increases the proportion of uranium atoms that can be split by fission to release energy, usually in the form of heat to make electricity. The federal government began enriching uranium there in 1952, first for use in nuclear weapons and later for nuclear power plants.

Congress created USEC in 1992 and it went private in 1998, but the plant's 1950s technology was a massive energy hog, sometimes requiring as much power as a city the size of Nashville, Tenn.

Kentucky Emergency Management officials said the storms that came through Sunday also damaged some homes, blew down trees and left about 3,000 homes without power in Western Kentucky, but didn’t injure anyone.

Interstate 69 in Caldwell County remained closed on Monday at the 80 mile marker due to downed power lines. Kentucky Department of Transportation spokesman Keith Todd says it should reopen by early afternoon.

Eight counties in Kentucky reported tornadoes.

I have included the following article (along with all the mistakes). This will have to be watched

Tornado Touches Down At Nuclear Plant: Nuke Plants Vulnerable To Weather–Rising Water And Cooling System Malfunction picture and video

Beforeitsnews

18 November, 2013

Sunday’s tornadoes roared across the Midwest ad ploughed houses under like a bulldoer. Homes, schoolks and even nuclear poiwer plants got hit,

News reports say a Kentucky nuclear plant may have been hit in Paducah, Kentucky. This shows a danger from weather systems that is unique to nuclear plants.

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is a facility located in McCracken County, Kentucky, near Paducah, Kentucky that produces enriched uranium for nuclear power plants. The plant is now operated by United States Enrichment Corporation, a subsidiary of USEC Incorporated, a publicly traded corporation (NYSE: USU). It is the only operating uranium enrichment facility in the United States apart from a pilot gas centrifuge installation at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and URENCO‘s in Eunice, New Mexico. The Paducah plant produces low-enriched nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants.

The gaseous diffusion plant covers 750 acres (300 ha) of a 3,425 acres (1,386 ha) site. The four process buildings cover 74 acres (30 ha), and consume a peak electrical demand of 3,040 megawatts.^[1]

Unlike electric generating plants, nuclear plants have cooling systems which must operate. Fukushima and Hurricane Sandy show us how vulnerable those plants are to weather-related power outages and earthquakes. SOURCE

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The danger Hurricane Sandy posed to nuclear power plants along the East Coast highlights some of the same vulnerabilities that terrorists looking to release harmful radiation into the environment could exploit, watchdog groups said this week.

The unprecedented storm posed two main challenges to atomic energy facilities: rising water levels and interruptions to the electricity grid. Both have the potential to disrupt crucial cooling systems at the plants, and particularly those for pools used to cool spent reactor fuel. If spent fuel rods overheat and are exposed to air, they can cause fires and dangerous radiation releases. MOREHERE

Missourians are not that crazy aoub anuclear plant in their neck of the woods, as this Youtube video shows:

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Update:

PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION 

PLANT: ALERT DUE TO STORM 

DAMAGE ON SITE - Tornado Strike

http://www.nucpros.com/content/paducah-gaseous-diffusion-plant-alert-due-storm-damage-site-tornado-strike

On 11/17/13, at 1417 CST, an alert was declared at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant due to an apparent tornado strike/severe weather event. Multiple facilities were damaged with no injuries and no hazardous material released. No damage to the security fence was observed and the protected area remained secured during the event.

This event is reportable under 10 CFR 76.120(a)(4) where an emergency condition has been declared an Alert.

NRC Branch Chief has been notified. PGDP has no NRC Resident Inspector.

PGDP Event Report No. PAD-2013-08.

Notified DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, NICC, EPA, and Nuclear SSA via email.

* * * UPDATE FROM DAVID PETTY TO CHARLES TEAL AT 1746 EST ON 11/17/13 * * *

On 11 /17/13, at 1638 CST, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant decided to issue press releases describing the Alert issued by the plant that afternoon. The Alert was declared due to an apparent tornado strike/severe weather event on 11/17/13 at 1417 CST.

This event is reportable under Criteria P in Appendix D of USEC procedure CP2-RA-RE 1 030 as any event or situation, related to the health and safety of the public or on-site personnel, or protection of the environment, for which a news release is planned or notification to other government agencies has been or will be made.

NRC Branch Chief has been notified. PGDP has no resident inspector.

PGDP Event Report No. PAD-2013-08.

Notified RA (McCree), NMSS EO (Damon), R2DO (Desai), IRD (Gott), NMSS (Haney), DHS, FEMA, USDA, HHS, DOE, NICC, EPA, and Nuclear SSA via email.

* * * UPDATE FROM DAVID PETTY TO CHARLES TEAL AT 1910 EST ON 11/17/13 * * *

The Alert was terminated at 1806 CST on 11/17/13 after a complete security check of the site perimeter and a compilation of the damages sustained by the site. There were no personnel injuries and no releases (HAZMAT or radiological).