Tornado knocks out off-site power to Virginia nuclear reactors

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Robert Singleton

Saturday evening, Surrey nuclear facility lost all off-site power to both reactors after a tornado touched down in the station’s switchyard. Both reactors tripped, and the station’s three emergency diesel generators activated. Both reactors are still at 0 per cent power as of this morning’s Status Report.
 
This information is from the NRC’s Daily Events Report. So far, I haven’t found any press coverage of the incident. It’s surprising that there is not coverage, as loss of offsite power was the prime cause of the Fukushima meltdowns.

About Robert Singleton

By day, I work for a call center. In my spare time, I try to save my hometown (and planet) from a nearly constant onslaught of greedheads, lunatics and land developers. I live in a fictional town called Austin, Texas, where I go to way too many meetings.
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1 Response to Tornado knocks out off-site power to Virginia nuclear reactors

  1. Jason Coleman says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    Actually, it was not the off site power loss that casused the melt-down of the reactors, it was the loss of Deisel and the battery power both, that caused the issue to become so dire. From what I am reading, the situation is being controlled by deisel generators to the coolant pumps and other critical functions until the off site power can be restored to a normal status. However, I do agree that this is VERY news worthy, at the same time however, the American public is so fickle that this alone could turn them against nuclear power for good. Which is rediculous. We need nuclear power now more than ever. I actually understand why the government feels that it needs to lie to the public. The public at large are idiots who’s oppinions blow with the winds. They have no “life experiences” and need descisions to be made for them or they will simply fall into anarchy. This is the damned honest sad truth. Most Americans, if faced with a survival situation, would simply hunt down those who do know how to survive and kill them and take their supplies until there were no one left to take from.

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