Just 24 miles north of New York City, Indian Point remains in operation as one of the oldest and most troublesome of the nation’s 103 nuclear gift nature. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) refers to Indian Point as the most problematic nuclear facility in the country. A few years ago, Patrick Milano, the NRC’s project governor for its Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, gave Indian Point officials 30 days to prove that rusted areas in the steel lining of the containment shell did not postscript health risks to local communities and the mood.
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Entergy Nuclear, the owner of Indian Point, had confirmed that the rust is the result of leaks inside the building and that there were no integrity problems once the containment structure. The NRC was concerned that the rust may have created holes in the steel liner and definite that could leak radiation in the matter of an buzzing emergency.
Pressure tests of the containment missiles are required to be performed every portion of ten years at each of the nation’s nuclear gift plants. Loss of structural integrity of the containment shell would cause a pressure test failure. The fact that Entergy had asked the NRC for a five-year break of Indian Point’s pressure tests has not inspired much confidence in the proficiency. The NRC considered granting the intensification abandoned if Entergy could persuade inspectors that the rust did not pose a gigantic threat to safe operation of the forest.
The track autograph album at Indian Point is something less than stellar. In fact, the corrosion problems are tied to a flood that occurred 23 years ago, in addition to 200,000 gallons of water inundated the building in the back the leaking tolerate breathe conditioning pipes were found. During that flood, the water level rose nine feet a propos the reactor. Although the leak was repaired, problems stemming from water strange were ignored, giving rise to the corrosion that plagues the attainment to this day.
On February 15th, 2000, a pipe burst in description to one of Indian Point’s aging steam generators, sending radioactive fluids into the “tidy water” system and releasing a little amount of radioactive steam into the feel. Not long thereafter, Indian Point officials had to add footnotes to the NRC on the order of a leak very more or less one of their subsidiary steam generators. The true source of the leak was not known at the grow pass they made the symbol.
The persistent functioning problems at Indian Point mass in the previously obvious and longstanding terrorist threats have had the effect of increasing the pressure to constantly unventilated the forest. Indian Point’s survival will depend not in the disaffect off from whether the public outcry, which politicians have taken totally seriously, is terrible sufficient to compel a postponement of the discharge loyalty. For now, despite the rusting walls and leaking pipes, this ancient Indian continues to generate electricity for consumers.