“This was one of the crucial vital security occasions in US nuclear historical past and but it was not considerably harmful to the general public,” mentioned Stein. “That speaks to the robustness of those crops.”
NRC licensing requires reactor buildings to be constructed to face up to “twister missiles,” or massive objects colliding at excessive speeds, Stein added. “They’re actually designed to face up to these sorts of occasions safely,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, NextEra plans to extend weather-related security measures on the reopened Duane Arnold plant.
“We do have a look at these occasions and attempt to garner classes realized and ask, what might make the plant even safer than it’s?” mentioned NextEra guide Michael Davis at a public data assembly held in Cedar Rapids by the Iowa Utilities Fee on Nov. 13.
The corporate is contemplating putting in a 3rd diesel generator to offer further backup energy, and also will design Duane Arnold’s alternative water-cooling towers with a better wind resistance threshold, mentioned Davis.
Google representatives didn’t reply to questions on whether or not the harm incurred at Duane Arnold in the course of the 2020 derecho raised any issues for nuclear security throughout extreme climate occasions.
The NRC security necessities mandate that candidates “contemplate essentially the most extreme meteorologic and seismic circumstances identified within the proposed space,” when choosing reactor websites, an NRC consultant wrote in an announcement to Inside Local weather Information.
“It’s necessary to know that nuclear crops are constructed to face up to excessive environmental hazards and that the NRC requires crops to take care of redundant techniques, elements and applications to have the ability to mitigate lack of off-site energy occasions,” the NRC added.
Lokenvitz, the previous Duane Arnold engineer, views the plant’s reopening as a kind of resurrection. If the power hadn’t already been slated for decommissioning when the derecho struck, Duane Arnold would have been rebuilt and continued to supply energy, she mentioned.
“That plant operated precisely as designed. It was simply the right storm.”
