On Sunday, I wrote a short blog post about the fatal accident at ANO 1, and the death of Ted Rockwell, nuclear pioneer. Here's an update.
ANO 1
Will Davis wrote an excellent update on the ANO 1 accident. It is at his blog, Atomic Power Review, and I hope he will be writing more updates in the future. The first sentence of his post reads: As of this morning, there has been exceedingly little new information released about Sunday's industrial accident at ANO Generating Station. So true! His post also ends with a list of unanswered questions.
I am going to add one more question to Davis list: why no pictures? There are pictures available somewhere. I have seen people on twitter refer to pictures, but no pictures have been released to the public. Some pictures may be gory and should not be generally released, out of sympathy to the people who suffered. But in other accidents have the same constraints of good taste and empathy, and they release some pictures. This accident was tragic: there is no reason to also make it mysterious.
UPDATE: A comment sent me a link to a picture of the accident. http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/17159/
NRC and OSHA are investigating. Davis posts includes a time-line of events and links to many press releases, from Entergy, NRC, and OSHA. I also recommend this article from Power Engineering Magazine: Entergy Confirms Death During Refueling. It provides context, including comments on other accidents.
Ted Rockwell
Ted Rockwell, a pioneer of nuclear energy and a tireless crusader for it, passed away quietly in his sleep on Sunday, jus a few months before his 91st birthday. I simply cannot do a better job of eulogizing him than Rod Adams did today at ANS Nuclear Cafe: Ted Rockwell, Atomic Pioneer and Tireless Campaigner for Facts.
I also recommend Rockwell's site:
Learning About Energy http://www.learningaboutenergy.com/
with the provocative sub-heading: "Much of What You Know Simply Isn't So."
The site also has links to several of his books. I recommend his book The Rickover Effect. I close with a short clip from Rod Adams; Ted Rockwell speaking about Small Modular Reactors in 2009.
6 comments:
This link has one of the photos.
http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/17159/
Anon
Thank you! I have linked to the picture as an update, in case someone doesn't read the comment section.
Direct quote from my Feb 2011 2.206!
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1105/ML110550670.pdf
"Palisades: Request Emergency Palisades shutdown"
Feb 22, 2011
(Pg 19)
Dear Mr. Borchardt,
"In the 1942 movie Casablanca:
Rick Blaine: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Louis Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."
"Wouldn't you want to be on the Palisades refuel floor for the heart thumping loud bang and vibration coming from a dropped reactor head by a crane? How neat would that be for worker with industry bragging rights? I was there for the ten seconds it took for the head to rattle and smash through multiple floors to the basement floor. They could be saying by my age, that was the neatest 10 seconds in my life, besides when I was alone with Linda Lue when I was seventeen. News at 11 pm? I see Entergy thinks it more efficient to not follow procedures in an outage."
Got caught not doing safety checks on the polar crane!
http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/22135931/article-Pictures-of-ANO-accident-scene-surface-online?instance=viewed
The turbine floor collapsed...wasn't designed for the weight.
They were using the installed rail gantry crane and temp crane as a means to speed up the outage...
Then the lower level employees, much like VY employees leaked pictures to the internet such as the cooling tower during a union contract deal...
So lower level employees are trying to sabotage their management by the picture leak and at their most vulnerable period...
Mike,
Fortunately OSHA, the NRC, and the trained staff at the plant will complete a systematic and informed investigation, instead of throwing out wild accusations, rants, and ugliness as you have been doing for the past two days. Maybe that's how some former nuclear industry employees choose to behave... Any chance that's why the term "former" applies to you?
Cheryl Twarog - Proud wife of a current VY employee
I will not publish any more comments on this post.
Mike has chosen to inflame the situation with accusations. I am sure that Cheryl is not the only person who is angry with him. I am also angry. His tone is: "I told you so -- they are all idiots—ha ha hah."
As one of the experienced bloggers told me when I started blogging: "Don't feed the trolls." In other words, when things get nasty, close the comments.
The comments are closed.
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