Brunswick: Sixty Foot Flood To Inudate The Plant In A Week

update

Flooding to roads leading to facility have stranded workers, however, plant remains safe

**For Sunday coverage from Brunswick County, click here**

Duke Energy’s nuclear plant in Brunswick County is now inaccessible due to flooding, which has left workers stranded.

Highways 87, 133 and 211 to get to the Southport facility are all mostly impassable, although a few have braved the elements and made it in and out. One worker, who wish to not be identified, said they are fine despite the circumstances and got food delivered via helicopter.

The worker estimates about 250 people are at the plant between maintenance, security and operations

Sept 16, 2018. [KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS]

“We are all dirty and tired,” the worker said. “We lost county water to the site yesterday, but we just got it back.”

The worker made it clear the plant is safe despite the effects from Hurricane Florence. Reactors were shut down hours before hurricane-force winds hit the region.

A P-3 Orion aircraft flew over the plant Monday to check on any damage from overhead. 

***Just emailed a NRC public Affairs office. This was his immediate response. Sounds like a canned message. You notice nothing was said about the future flooding.

If he was a real public affairs person, he would have sent me a link to the latest Wilmington Cape Fear River flood projection peak for the rest of this storm from a assortment of river  gov authorities.

Right, we are in the times of Russian trolls and internet kooks. You got to counteract them. The NRC is playing an  the old game.

Burnell, Scott

12:19 PM (7 minutes ago)


to me


Hello Mr. Mulligan;

The NRC has issued several Facebook posts and Tweets reiterating Brunswick remains safe and stable. Thank you.

Scott Burnell

***This guy is going to have to be verified. They have locks on the river. This might be mixed up with upstream flood levels. This would be torture for the nation.

If it is, they is going to be slow motion USA Fukushima. Half of the plant would be washed downstream.

Hurricane Florence: Sixty Foot Flood to Inundate Brunswick Nuclear Plant on Cape Fear River NC

On Saturday morning, CNN reports that National Weather Service forecast flood waters on Cape Fear River in Wilmington N.C. to crest at 60 feet (sixty feet) early next week. Wilmington is near Southport, home of two reactor Brunswick nuclear plant on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The nuclear plant has a sea wall designed to withstand 22 feet of flooding according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On Saturday morning the river gage on Cape Fear River in Wilmington had reached 16 feet with forecast of rising rapidly to an astounding record sixty feet of flood crest early next week. 

Heavy downpours continue as Florence moves very slowly to the south west. The wide Cape Fear River is a major channel for flood water runoff to reach the ocean.

A fifty to sixty flood inundating the plant will mean thirty to forty foot deep flood coursing through the plant. This is almost certain to knock out onsite emergency generators at the nuclear plant to cool the reactors. What stands between catastrophic nuclear disaster are additional pumps and additional backup generation installed after Fukushima.

The ability of the reactors to tolerate prolonged deep flood waters is unknown. It was reported that waterproof steel doors had been installed on seven key locations in anticipation of the storm.

The Brunswick reactors are the same GE Mark I reactors that are at Fukushima. It is highly likely that offsite power to the nuclear plant will be disrupted by hurricane Florence. In this case, onsite emergency generators will be required to maintain cooling systems for the nuclear plants and spent fuel ponds filed with highly radioactive waste.

If water overtops the seawall, it can lead to electrical failure and potential for catastrophic events similar to the Fukishima reactor disaster that resulted in multiple reactor meltdowns and hydrogen explosions in overheating reactors.

“We face imminent danger of nuclear catastrophe, now that the forecast is for a 60 foot flood crest at 22 foot sea wall at the Brunswick plant. All possible assistance shall be provided immediately to help prevent nuclear disaster,” said energy expert Roy Morrison.