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Palisades nuclear plant watchdogs warn about earthquake risks

Friday’s early morning 5.2 magnitude earthquake, originating in southeast Illinois but felt in southwest Michigan, revived concerns of atomic watchdog groups that a powerful enough earthquake jolting the Palisades atomic reactor site could spell radioactive catastrophe for Lake Michigan and communities downwind and downstream. Palisades has nearly three dozen concrete and steel silos holding irradiated nuclear fuel rods. The silos, called dry casks, rest upon two concrete pads. The concrete slabs are located upon loose sand amidst the dunes of the Lake Michigan shoreline. Some containers of radioactive waste are just 150 yards from the water. The earthquake is a reminder that Palisades’ mounting radioactive wastes put Lake Michigan and the drinking water supply at risk.

Details Here: www.dowagiacnews.com/articles/2008/04/21/columnists/dncolumn03.txt

first published week of:   04/25/2008

PECO conducting aerial line inspections to ensure continued reliability

Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) is conducting helicopter inspections of its transmission lines as an important part of the utility’s regular program to ensure safe and reliable electric service to homes and businesses throughout the area. The company has contracted Haverfield Airship to perform infrared and visual inspection of more than 1,000 miles of transmission lines in PECO’s six county service territory. The infrared equipment detects portions of the lines that may need to be repaired or replaced, while visual inspections of other aerial equipment like conductors and transmission towers identify potential damage due to weather, such as high winds or lightening strikes. There are no outages or customer impacts associated with the inspections. During the next few weeks, a helicopter will fly approximately 12 to 20 feet above transmission lines and structures to perform the inspections.

Details Here: www.poweronline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid={0346CE41- B7C4-431D-B766-023746CC4B63}&VNETCOOKIE=NO

first published week of:   04/07/2008

Penn State reactor in compliance

Operations at the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor were in full compliance with regulatory guidelines both before and after a small water leak was detected there, a federal inspection has concluded. Penn State, which owns and operates the research device, will face no enforcement action from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an NRC spokesman said Friday. “We did not see any breakdowns in their programs,” an NRC spokesman said. “We also found that once they did identify some leakage, they actively pursued the source… and went about repairing it in a very timely manner.” The NRC launched the inspection after Penn State reported the leak in October. Workers realized October 9 that roughly 10 gallons an hour were escaping from the 71,000-gallon water pool that holds the reactor.

Details Here: www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/301946.html

first published week of:   01/07/2008

PG&E gets OK to build power plant in valley

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) won permission from California energy regulators on Wednesday to build a $673 million, gas-burning power plant in Colusa County. San Francisco’s PG&E plans to break ground on the project later this spring, with the generating station scheduled to begin operations in 2010. It will produce up to 660 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 495,000 homes.

Details Here: www.sfgate.com/cgibin/ article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/24/BUNC10AM9K.DTL

first published week of:   04/28/2008

Power plants open to hacker attack

Power plants could be sabotaged by a simple internet attack that shuts down their control systems. Core Security has discovered a serious vulnerability in a software package called Suitelink that is widely used to automate the operation of power stations, oil refineries, and production lines. This could allow attackers to crash Suitelink by sending an outsize data packet to a certain port on the computer running the program. Suitelink’s maker, Wonderware, has since issued a software patch to plug the security gap. Core had only just begun examining this kind of supervisory control and data acquisition program when it found the problem. This may mean that more vulnerabilities are still hidden in software of this type.

Details Here: technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/electronicthreats/ mg19826566.200-power-plants-open-to-hacker-attack.html

first published week of:   05/19/2008

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