As the world watches helplessly while Japanese workers are racing to contain the nuclear disaster in Japan, more and more people are questioning the nuclear plants in our country. Minnesotans are worrying about whether a similar catastrophe could strike here.
Minnesota has two nuclear power plants, both of which are in Southern Minnesota. The plants, the Monticello plant in Monticello and the Prairie Island plant in Welch (near Red Wing), are both situated on the Mississippi River. Both are owned by Xcel Energy.
Xcel publishes an 18-page guidebook on nuclear safety issues and evacuation procedures for those in these communities.
The plants use two different types of reactors, which lead to different risk levels. MPR news explained:
Xcel's plant at Monticello is similar in design to the Japanese plant: it's a GE boiling water reactor, and there have been safety concerns about this design for years.
Experts say a build-up of pressure in the core could destroy the containment vessel. American plants have made modifications over the years that allow venting to prevent pressure from building up -- but that could presumably allow radioactive material to escape, as it apparently has been doing in Japan.
MPR further reported:
The Prairie Island plant had what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) calls "cross-cutting issues," meaning a pattern of human errors and other problems that indicated a problem with safety awareness. After about a year of extra inspections and a lot of hard work, Prairie Island was returned to standard status late in 2010.
Read on to read more information about how these plants are designed to hopefully avert catastrophes in the event of disasters.
Wikipedia notes that the Prairie Island plant has raised concerns with Minnesotans in the past, saying it "has proven to be the most controversial due to the storage of nuclear waste in large steel casks on-site, an area which is a floodplain of the Mississippi."
Wikipedia also notes:
In May 2006 repair workers at the plant were exposed to very low levels of radiation due to inhalation of radioactive iodine-131 gas. The gas leaked from the steam generators, which were opened for inspection. The gas is normally removed by means of a carbon-based filter; in this case the filter had developed a small leak. The NRC deemed this event to be of very low safety significance and notes that it did not result in any overdose.
As for the Monticello plant, Wikipedia says:
In January 2007 a 13-ton control box fell eight to twelve inches and caused an unexpected shutdown. This control box was located in the condenser room of the turbine building and contained valves which controlled steam pressure. Emergency response teams at the station deemed that the event was likely caused by inadequate welds at the time of installation and fatigue due to vibrations over the life of the plant.
The site also noted two other small events in the past:
On September 11, 2008, a cable fault tripped the transformer which supplied power to the site. This resulted in a loss of off-site power and the plant automatically shut down.
On September 17, 2008, an employee for a rental equipment company was electrocuted by one phase of the 115-kV power line outside of the plant due to a lack of situational awareness. The plant was offline at the time due to the forced outage described above.
Xcel issued a press release earlier in the week to reassure the public, saying in part:
All nuclear power plants, including ours, are built to withstand environmental hazards, including earthquakes, tornadoes and floods. Even those plants that are located outside of areas with extensive seismic activity are designed for safety in the event of such a natural disaster.
The Prairie Island Indian Community has long objected to the Prairie Island facility, whose nuclear power plant and nuclear waste storage site are just 600 yards from their community. Among their objections are the fact that when accidents and exposures have happened in the past, the tribe has not been informed or information has come much later.
On Tuesday, the Tribal council issued a statement expressing concern for the Japanese people dealing with natural and nuclear disasters, saying:
Their reality is our biggest fear. The tragic events in Japan demonstrate that even the most stringent and redundant safety measures cannot guarantee our safety and security.
Minnesotans can view information in the 56-page “Radiological Emergency Preparedness Handbook” (also known as the Nuclear Disaster Handbook) put out by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Some Minnesotans are also asking Governor Dayton to veto any repeal of the moratorium on nuclear power plants in the state. A bill to do so stalled out temporarily on Monday, when Republican sponsors complained that Dayton was putting too many demands on them. The governor has said he wants the bill to include financial protection for ratepayers and a plan for storing new nuclear waste. Still, he has said that he may sign the repeal and once more allow new nuclear power plants to be built in the state.
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