Hurricane Katrina Update

From the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (PDF):

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Sunday dispatched additional personnel to three nuclear power plants in Louisiana and Mississippi in response to the expected landfall Monday of Hurricane Katrina.

One plant near New Orleans - Waterford - informed the NRC it shut down to ensure that all safety precautions are in place ahead of the storm.

The NRC is monitoring the hurricane from operations centers in Arlington, Texas, and its Rockville, Md., headquarters.

"We are staying on top of the situation because protecting public health and safety is paramount," said Nils Diaz, chairman of the independent regulatory agency

At the Waterford plant the major concern beyond winds was the storm surge, last predicted to approach the top of an18-foot levee on the Mississippi River. Nuclear plants are very robust structures designed to withstand winds in excess of those in Katrina and associated storm surges. Both Waterford and the other plants have watertight doors at key safety systems.

All three plants the NRC was monitoring are owned by Entergy Nuclear. The Waterford plant is about 20 miles west of New Orleans. The River Bend plant is about 25 miles north-northwest of Baton Rouge, La., and Grand Gulf is located 25 miles south of Vicksburg, Miss.

Waterford initially declared an "unusual event" because of the approach of the hurricane, and will raise its level of preparedness on the NRC's four-step scale to an "alert" as winds reach hurricane strength and to a "site area emergency" should winds exceed 110 mph. The alert levels are specified in advance precautionary plans dictated by the NRC. The "site area emergency" classification is associated with plant personnel safety.

The NRC will have to approve the restart of Waterford and any other plant that shuts down. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will have to determine that evacuation routes in the area are passable.

It's important to note that actions like these are standard operating procedure, and much the same was done a little less than a year ago as Hurricane Ivan approached the Gulf Coast. For more insight into how the hurricane might affect domestic energy markets, visit Rod Adams:

Several nuclear power plants also operate close to the coast of southern Louisiana. My prediction for them, however, is that they will be back to full operation in a matter of days, based on recent experiences with the effects of storms on their more robust structures.

UPDATE: As you might imagine, our friends at Entergy are faced with an enormous challenge right now:

Entergy President Dan Packer said work crews would begin assessing damage to the power system Tuesday. But this much he already knows: Hurricane Katrina will go down as the worst the utility has ever experienced.

The situation Monday afternoon was "the worst we've had in our company's history,'' he said on WWL radio.

Packer said more than 700,000 customers - about 100 percent of the utility's customers in southeast Louisiana - were without power as of Monday afternooon.

He said the company's second-worst power outage was during Hurricane Georges, when some 265,000 customers had no electricty.

Packer urged people to remain indoors and avoid power lines.

"I can't caution people enough to be careful out there,'' he said.

Many dedicated Entergy employees are on call right now. These are employees who won't be seeing their families much over the next few weeks. We're lucky to have them.

Technorati tags: Hurricane Katrina Nuclear Energy Environment Energy Technology Economics