[ RadSafe ] Questions Re: McGuire Nuclear Station

[Sandy Perle]

Hello Ted,

I know many individuals who work at McGuire and have been there myself. I expect that the local population was “notified” through print media, or perhaps a newscast, and those medium never have anything good to say about nuclear plants in their area. However, your answers were quite good and I expect accurate as well. I also expect that the Utility Corporate Communications Department, or even plant management have or will respond. I would not expect that the kinds of questions that you posed below would be covered on a plant website nor would I expect individuals within the plant to address any issues that have been posed unless it is in an official capacity.

The key comment you offered, is that the plant would simply shutdown if the station were ever in a situation that did not meet operating or other specs and requirements. McGuire is not the only facility in this position, low water cooling sources. However, the recent rain should help significantly and I know individuals who live im the various lakes in the area and the lake levels have risen significantly.

I would recommend that Powernet would be a better list to pose your questions since that is the site where all plants have representation in the membership.

Regards,

Sandy
Retired and Consultant


> On Oct 4, 2015, at 5:12 PM, Ted de Castro <tdc at xrayted.com> wrote:
> 
> Anyone reading the list associated with McGuire Nuclear Station in NC?
> 
> My son lives near there and I just got a concerned call from his wife - seems the local population has been told that when the lake gets below 7 ft below crest that the reactor "has a problem" and since it was ALMOST there she wanted to know "how big a bang to expect".
> 
> I explained that the lake water was used as a secondary coolant and that the issue was PROBABLY that at below 7 ft it would be getting close to not being able to draw enough water fast enough for sufficient cooling to operate at full power and the reactor would need to shut down and that this could be done quickly and safely and that the greatest effect they could possibly anticipate would power outages or rolling blackouts as the missing power would need to come from somewhere.  Also that when the lake was again high enough the reactor could be relatively simply restarted.
> 
> I also assured them that the 7ft spec was probably quite conservative.
> 
> They felt better and now thanks to Joaquin - the lake is filling FAST!
> 
> None the less - I told them I would put the question to the list and see what feedback I could get on what the issues were/are.
> 
> BTW - they also asked what is the heat source for the steam plant at the other end of the lake and its function.
> 
> BTW II - I did look at the DUKE website for that plant and forwarded that to them.
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