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First New US Nuclear Reactor In Two Decades Gets Permission To Begin Fueling (ieee.org)
An anonymous reader writes: The Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar nuclear power plant began construction in 1973. The plant's first reactor was completed in 1996, and it began operation. Work on the second reactor paused in 1988, and only resumed in 2007. That reactor is now complete — the first newly-operational Generation II reactor since the 1990s. The new reactor has been granted an operational license, and it will soon begin fueling. While the Gen II reactors aren't unsafe, they're much less safe than the Gen III AP1000s. "Compared to a Westinghouse Gen II PWR, the AP1000 contains 50 percent fewer safety-related valves, 35 percent fewer pumps, 80 percent less safety-related piping, 85 percent less control cabling, and 45 percent less seismic building volume. ... If an accident happens, the AP1000 will shut itself down without needing any human intervention (or even electrical power) within the first 72 hours."
This plant has a very poor safety record.
Because of a flaw in the original construction, the original reactor has to routinely vent tritium into the atmosphere instead of being diverted to the reclaimer and recycled back into the gas loop (a valve box was placed in a foundation area that was eventually covered with concrete. Both valves became stuck around 2005, with no way to access them. Since 2005, approx. 25,000 cublic liters of tritium are vented into the atmosphere on a bi-weekly basis.
Two whistle blowers were issued gag orders by the FBI when they threatened to report the tritium venting to their senator after numerous attempts to address these safety issues with plant management, the NRC, and the governor.