BY GREG ROBINSON, Lions’ Pride Multimedia Editor
The world has followed the crisis in Japan with feelings of shock and terror from the initial news of the earthquake and tsunami to the growing concern of a nuclear meltdown. Crews at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor have battled endlessly to cool a reactor, hoping to prevent a major nuclear incident.
The radiation is partially contained by a barrier put in place at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Newer reactors are built with a steel and concrete containment system to prevent the release of radioactive material in the case of a meltdown. The reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant did not have one of these containment walls, and as a result, a large amount of radioactive material was released into the atmosphere. The partial meltdown that occurred at the Three-mile Island reactor in 1979, however, did have a containment system, and most of the radiation was contained.
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor have tried any number of methods to contain the radiation, which has been leaking in increasing amounts since the disaster almost five weeks ago. One of the newest methods involves dumping tens of thousands of liters of a “sticky resin” into the reactor, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This ongoing nuclear crisis has raised several questions for nations with nuclear power plants in the United States. Many people in the Pasco/Hernando county area would be surprised to find out they are not so far from a nuclear facility. To the northwest of the Saint Leo campus, in Crystal River, Florida, there is a nuclear generating plant. The United States NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission), on their website http://www.nrc.gov, has the Crystal River facility located approximately 80 miles north of Tampa.
The nuclear facility in Crystal River is not quite the same as the Fukushima Daiichi reactor. The nearby facility is a pressurized water reactor and not a boiling water reactor like the one in Japan.
With a nuclear generation plant nearby, the question must inevitably be asked, especially during a time where nuclear power is under scrutiny: How safe is this nuclear plant?
Fortunately, the NRC keeps detailed safety and maintenance records available on their website. According to these reports, the steam generators at the Crystal River facility were replaced as recently as 2009. During this replacement, a crack in the concrete of the containing wall was discovered. Further investigation revealed that the crack in the 42 inches of concrete had not damaged the steel liner beneath, and thus, the integrity of the containment wall was maintained. More information on this issue is available on the NRC’s website along with numerous public documents. http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/cr3/concrete-containment-separation.html.
Full documentation of inspections and records are also available on the website and reveal a good safety record for the plant. The most recent inspection from the 4th quarter of 2010 shows satisfactory marks in all areas listed.
It is unlikely that an earthquake of that magnitude would ever strike Florida since the state does not rest on a major active fault line. However, there is the possibility of a hurricane, although it would take one of the tremendous proportions to penetrate all 42 inches of solid concrete and steel.
