Nuclear Shutdown News August 2021
By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear industry, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.
On August 29, 2021, 16 years to the day when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and environs, Hurricane Ida made landfall twice as a Category 4 storm. Its 150 mph winds raced through the Crescent City, and up cancer alley, by Baton Rouge, an area replete with petrochemical facilities whose surrounding African American populations have high rates of serious health care problems in the best of times.
Almost all of the Gulf coast’s offshore refineries were forced to shut down and a million or more lost electrical power, including all of New Orleans.
Complicating this catastrophe was the loss of two nuclear plants, both upriver from New Orleans and owned by Entergy Corporation. According to an 8-30 report by S &P Global, Entergy shut down its Waterford nuke plant on 8-29 “after off-site electrical power was lost because of Hurricane Ida.”
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the plant was disconnected from the electrical grid that day “per procedures as storm winds elevated.”
The following day, the River Bend nuclear plant, 25 miles north of New Orleans, “reduced power to 35% of capacity.” The unit reduced power at the request of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Entergy’s Mike Bowling said.
“The action was to preserve the integrity of the grid in the wake of Hurrican Ida” Bowling added.
At this point, when the lights will come on is anybody’s guess.
Source : S&P Global, spglobal.com.
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