Three Mile Island Generating Station Emergency Siren Test Scheduled for June 6

Contact: Dave Marcheskie
717-579-0229
David.Marcheskie@exeloncorp.com 
 

THREE MILE ISLAND GENERATING STATION EMERGENCY SIREN TEST SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 6

 
Sirens to sound for three minutes at 12:15 p.m. 

 
LONDONDERRY TWP, PA (June 4, 2018) — Exelon Generation will conduct its semi- annual, full volume test of the emergency warning sirens surrounding Three Mile Island (TMI) Generating Station on June 6 at approximately 12:15 p.m. This is one of two semi- annual tests performed each year.
The emergency warning siren system consists of 96 sirens located in parts of Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties within a 10-mile radius of TMI. The sirens are not a signal to evacuate, but a warning to tune to a local emergency alert broadcast television or radio station. County emergency management authorities activate the sirens, which can be used in the event of any emergency, including severe weather.
Although TMI is scheduled to permanently shut down later this year, the siren system must remain in operation in accordance with local, state and federal emergency planning requirements until certain emergency procedures and processes are no longer in place. Those procedures are expected to be discontinued in accordance with federal regulator oversight.
TMI is located approximately 12 miles south of Harrisburg. The plant generates enough carbon-free electricity for 800,000 homes.

NRC Schedules Webinar to Discuss 2018 Safety Performance at Pennsylvania Nuclear Power Plants

No: I-19-012
May 21, 2019
Contact: Diane Screnci, 610-337-5330
Neil Sheehan, 610-337-5331

NRC Schedules Webinar to Discuss 2018 Safety Performance at Pennsylvania Nuclear Power Plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public webinar on June 12 to discuss the agency’s annual assessment of safety performance at the nuclear power plants located in Pennsylvania. Beaver Valley 1 & 2, in Shippingport, are operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company; and Susquehanna 1 & 2, in Berwick, are operated by Talen Energy. Limerick 1 & 2, in Limerick, Peach Bottom 2 & 3, in Delta, and Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Middletown, are operated by Exelon Nuclear.
The purpose of the webinar is to provide information regarding the plants’ safety performance in 2018 and the NRC’s oversight activities at the facilities. The online meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Participants will be able to view slides prepared by NRC staff and ask questions either orally or in writing via a web page established to host the session. Advance online registration is required to participate.
All of the units operated safely in 2018. For Beaver Valley, Limerick, Three Mile Island and Susquehanna, at the end of the year, all inspection findings and performance indicators were green, or of very low safety significance. As a result, the plants will receive the normal level of oversight in 2019, which entails thousands of hours of inspection each year.
The NRC determined the performance at Peach Bottom was within the Regulatory Response Column, the second highest performance column of the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process Action Matrix due to a white finding (low to moderate safety significance). The finding was related to performance issues that caused a shared emergency diesel generator to be declared inoperable last June. In addition to baseline inspections, the NRC is conducting a supplemental inspection to ensure that the root and contributing causes of degraded performance are understood and that appropriate corrective actions are taken.
The NRC Reactor Oversight Process uses color-coded inspection findings and indicators to describe plant performance. The colors start at green and increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. Inspection findings or performance indicators with more than very low safety significance trigger increased NRC oversight.
Inspections are performed by two NRC resident inspectors assigned to each of the plants and specialists from the agency’s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. The annual assessment letters

for Beaver Valley, Limerick, Peach Bottom, Susquehanna and Three Mile Island, as well as the webinar notice, are available on the NRC website. Current plant performance information for all of the units is also available on the website and updated quarterly.

Mary Stamos Collection is Going To The Smithsonian

Mary Stamos, a long-time member of TMI Alert’s Planning Council, has been collecting samples of mutated plants since the TMI meltdown in 1979. Now the world’s foremost museum and research complex, the Smithsonian Institution, has expressed interest in acquiring her collection. A small group of TMI Alert volunteers, under the leadership of Scott Portzline, spent hundreds of hours over four months documenting her collection. 

There are probably more than a thousand specimens that have been grouped into 320 separate exhibits. Each exhibit was photographed and documented with information about where found, when found, a brief description, and recorded comments from Mary about unique aspects of specific pieces. 
 

The collection is headed to the Natural History Museum’s Department of Botany where the individual pieces will be analyzed to ascertain if radiation from TMI caused the cellular structure of the plants to be altered. TMI Alert plans to post the entire database on its website so the public can examine the data, see the photos, and read or hear Mary’s comments about the specimens. 

Reprinted with permission from the January 2019 TMI Alert.

Susquehanna: Integrated Inspection Report 05000387/2018004 and 05000388/2018004

Susquehanna Steam Electric Station - Integrated Inspection Report 05000387/2018004 and 05000388/2018004

ADAMS Accession No.  ML19045A259

Peach Bottom: Integrated Inspection Report & Exercise of Enforcement Discretion

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station - Integrated Inspection Report 05000277/2018004 and 05000278/2018004 and Exercise of Enforcement Discretion

ADAMS Accession No. ML19045A281

DEP Reaches Settlement with Wayne County Hospital Over High X-Ray Radiation Levels at Community Health Center

Wilkes-Barre, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced today it has reached an agreement with Wayne Memorial Health System, Inc. (WMHSI) in Honesdale, Wayne County on a $15,600 civil penalty for violations relating to radiation sensors on a system-owned X-ray unit. DEP has determined that some patients at the system’s community health center in Waymart may have been exposed to high levels of radiation.

“The department’s main concern is the health and well-being of patients at this facility”, said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “Facilities that utilize equipment with radiation have a responsibility to comply with regulations and that did not happen here. This agreement will help ensure this does not happen in the future and patients are not at risk.”

During an inspection in September 2018, DEP staff discovered that sensors on the recently installed X-ray unit, which determine radiation exposure time, were not properly adjusted at the time of installation, causing the sensors to shut off while the unit was operating. Due to that malfunction, X-ray technicians were relying on the unit’s back-up timer to determine skin exposure time. The back-up timer was set at one second, which, under national radiation guidelines, is too long of an exposure time. As a result, the X-ray unit lacked the means to terminate radiation exposure at a pre-set time. This malfunction caused some patients to be exposed to radiation levels sixteen times the acceptable national average. 

The national measurement for radiation skin exposure is 320 milli Roentgen (mR), and because of the time limit set on the back-up X-ray unit, some patients at the health center had skin exposure of over 5100 mR. Those exposure levels are a violation of the Radiation Protection Act.

The DEP encourages anyone who may have had X-rays at the community health center between May and September of 2018 to consult a medical professional to discuss any concerns.

The department determined on September 26, 2018, that WMHSI had repaired the X-ray unit and, during a follow-up inspection, determined it was in compliance with DEP radiation regulations.

The agreement also calls for WMHSI to submit a copy of its Quality Assurance Plan, including its plans for the use of the x-ray unit, by February 2019 for DEP’s approval, and be instituted at the facility within two weeks of its approval. The facility must also begin, by March 1, 2019, providing copies of its daily tracking system of radiation exposure to DEP.

For more information on radiation exposure please go to DEP’s Radiation Protection webpage: https://www.dep.pa.gov/Business/RadiationProtection/Pages/default.aspx
 ​

MEDIA CONTACT: Colleen Connolly, 570-826-2035
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Costs of Nuclear Bailouts in New York, Illinois, Connecticut & New Jersey

Form: The form of the subsidy, for instance, either as a nuclear credit 

or above-market power contract. Subsidies adopted to date are either 

priced as nuclear credits separate from the sale of electricity and other 

ancillary services; or in the form of contracts to purchase electricity 

at higher prices than prevailing market prices.

 

Price: The unit cost of subsidies, based on the amount of electricity 

generated. In the case of power contracts, the subsidy price is 

calculated as an estimate of the average difference in the subsidized 

price and average market prices.

 

Duration: Length of time for which subsidies are committed or 

authorized.

 

Reactors: The number of reactors authorized to receive subsidies 

under the program.

 

Capacity: The total amount of electricity generation capacity authorized 

to receive subsidies, measured in megawatts (MW) of capacity.

 

Generation: The average annual amount of electricity generated by 

the subsidized capacity, or the maximum amount of generation to be 

subsidized.

 

Cost/year: The average annual projected cost of the nuclear subsidy.

 

Total Cost: The total projected cost of the nuclear subsidy program, 

over the full term.

 

Costs of Other State Nuclear Bailouts

 

State	Form	Price	Duration	Reactors	Capacity	Generation	Cost/year	Total Cost
New York	Credit	$17.48-$29.15/MWh (rises every 2 yrs.)	12 yrs (2017-2029)	4	3,351 MW	27,618,000 MWh	$483M-$804M	~$7.6 billion
Illinois	Credit	$16.50-$20.50/MWh (rises every year after yr. 7)	10 yrs (2017-2027)	3	2,780 MW	22,900,000 MWh	$235M (cost capped at ~$10/MWh)	$2.35 billion
New Jersey	Credit	~$10/MWh	3 yrs., up to 12 yrs.	3	3,573 MW	29,400,000 MWh	~$300M	<$3.6 billion
Connecticut	Power Contract	Unknown (price not yet finalized)	10 yrs.	3	~1,300 MW	~11 million MWh	Unknown (est. ≤ $330M)	Unknown (est. ≤ $3.3 billion)
TOTAL				13	11,000 MW	81 million MWh	> $1.1 billion/yr	~$15 billion

  

Subsidies to New York reactors are projected to total as much as $7.6 billion over 12 years (2017-2029).

Judson, Tim. “Too Big to Bail Out: The Economic Costs of a National Nuclear Power Subsidy.”

 Nuclear Information and Resource Ser­vice.  November 2016.

https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Report-TooBigToBailOut-NIRS.pdf

 

Illinois subsidies are projected to total $2.35 billion over 10 years (2017-2027). Daniels, Steve.

 “How Exelon will keep getting bailout money in Illinois—whether it needs it or not.” Crain’s Chicago Business. August 2, 2017. 

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti­cle/20170802/NEWS11/170809972/how-exelon-will-keep-getting-bailout-money-in-illinois-whether-it-needs-it-or-not

 

Connecticut subsidies could amount to $330 million per year, in five-year contracts.

Energyzt Advisors, LLC. “Financial Assessment: Millstone Nuclear Power Plant.” April 2017.

https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ENERGYZT_Assessment_of_Millstone_201704_FINAL.pdf

 

New Jersey subsidies are estimated to cost consumers $300 million per year, in extendable three-year periods.