ANO accident and Ted Rockwell death: Update and Links

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.

A Fatal Rigging Accident at ANO1

Two very sad things happened today.

1) A fatal accident at ANO1 today. ANO1 is on a refueling outage. They were moving a generator stator out of the turbine building. It fell, killing one person and injuring others.  I am sure there will be more news later.  Here's the Entergy press release.  In terms of industrial accidents, nuclear energy is one of the safest technologies around.  That generic fact is very little comfort when someone dies.  My thoughts and prayers are with the families.

2) This just in, and no links on it yet.  Ted Rockwell, nuclear pioneer and author of the book, The Rickover Effect, passed away today. I will update this post when I know more.

In other news, Will Davis assembled a fine Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers #150 and posted it this morning.  Reading the Carnival might be a small, upbeat partial-antidote to this day of sad news.  (I wasn't even sure I should post this link, but Davis did a lot of work, and I hope people will read it.)