Simultaneous scrams at risky reactors on both sides of Michigan
Beyond Nuclear
Sep 16, 2015
http://bit.ly/1NH4syj

[snip]

Michigan's still operating atomic reactors include American Electric Power's two units at D.C Cook in Bridgman, Entergy's single unit at Palisades in Covert, and Detroit Edison's Fermi Unit 2 in Monroe County. Consumers Energy's Big Rock Point reactor in Charlevoix was permanently closed in 1997. As reported by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) event report, "At 2305 EDT on September 13, 2015, a manual scram was initiated in response to a loss of all Turbine Building Closed Cooling Water (TBCCW)" at Detroit Edison's Fermi 2 atomic reactor in Monroe County, MI, on the Lake Erie shore.

Two updates to the NRC event report the next day revealed that the "ongoing event" had resulted in the reportable actuation of two safety systems: "Operators were manually controlling Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) level and pressure with Reactor Core Isolation Cooling (RCIC) and Safety Relief Valves (SRV)."

Fermi 2 is the largest General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor in the world. It is a super-sized version of Fukushima Daiichi -- nearly as big as Units 1 and 2 at the devastated Japanese nuclear power plant put together.

Just five days earlier, the NRC Commission unanimously voted to overrule its own Atomic Safety and Licensning Board Panel, and rejected environmental groups' hard-won hearing in opposition to Fermi 2's 20-year license extension.

Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario and Don't Waste MI, represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge, had won a hearing on the safety risks of Fermi 2 and the proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor sharing a common transmission line corridor. This risks a common mode failure, whether due to natural disaster, terrorist attack, etc. Combined with loss of emergency diesel generators -- for which Fermi 2 has an infamous track record -- the two unit complex could be plunged into Station Black Out, leaving both reactors, and both high-level radioactive waste storage pools, vulnerable to meltdowns and fires, respectively.

The full NRC Commission thus effectively rubber-stamped Fermi 2's operation till 2045 -- all that's left is the paperwork. But ironically enough, instead of being good to go for 30 more years, Fermi 2 instead suffered a breakdown, just a week later!