Nuclear Plant

Don't worry, the folks who operate nuclear power plants near Baltimore told us after a Japanese earthquake caused meltdowns and large radioactivity releases there. We don't have severe earthquakes on the East Coast. That proposition got tested Aug. 23, when the 5.8-magnitude quake centered in Virginia rattled buildings as far north as Toronto. The closest nuclear plant to Baltimore is Exelon Corp.'s Peach Bottom facility on the Susquehanna River, 45 miles away. Peach Bottom is built to withstand ground movement equal to an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter scale, Exelon said in April, after the Japan catastrophe.

Norman Meadow's commentary promoting nuclear power over wind energy as a solution to climate change leaves out serious unsolved problems that wind does not present ("Nuclear blows away wind," Feb. 1). Huge piles of highly radioactive waste are sitting all over the world in vulnerable spent fuel pools lacking containment structures or backup generators. The Japanese government was considering an evacuation of Tokyo in the event of an explosion at one. As we expand our reliance on nuclear power, we also expand this Achilles heel of the nuclear industry.

WASHINGTON -- Recent reports by defecting workers at a nuclear power plant under construction in Cuba were the "first real indication" of potential safety problems, a Bush administration official told members of Congress yesterday.Michael Kozak, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told members of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on inter-American affairs that the examples cited by the defectors of serious flaws at the nuclear plant are cause for concern, but not for panic.Kozak said that the administration intends to contact the government of Fidel Castro about the safety of the Soviet-designed reactor.

Don't worry, the folks who operate nuclear power plants near Baltimore told us after a Japanese earthquake caused meltdowns and large radioactivity releases there. We don't have severe earthquakes on the East Coast. That proposition got tested Aug. 23, when the 5.8-magnitude quake centered in Virginia rattled buildings as far north as Toronto. The closest nuclear plant to Baltimore is Exelon Corp.'s Peach Bottom facility on the Susquehanna River, 45 miles away. Peach Bottom is built to withstand ground movement equal to an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter scale, Exelon said in April, after the Japan catastrophe.

In the past year, S3 Technologies of Columbia has created 50 new jobs feeding on an industry that isn't growing at all in the United States: nuclear power.S3, which manufactures simulated nuclear power plant control rooms, was among seven companies recognized by the Greater Baltimore Committee with its 1991 Venture Awards Thursday for helping strengthen the local economy by investing in new jobs and equipment.Although the $50 million-a-year company has yet to gain the name recognition of county-based companies like the Rouse Co. or the Ryland Group, it has grown enough in three years to make it one of the county's largest employers with a staff of 440. The company opened in Howard in 1982 with less than 50 employees.

The federal government is about to provide 80,000 Marylanders who live near nuclear power plants with free doses of a common over-the-counter medicine that can protect people who survive high doses of radiation from developing thyroid cancer years later. The potassium iodide pills are courtesy of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which in December offered to give any state that asked for them enough doses for everyone living within 10 miles of a nuclear plant. The offer, made weeks before the NRC warned nuclear plant operators of possible terrorist attacks, is meant as a supplement to evacuation plans.

SOLOMONS -- Federal regulators kicked off public hearings yesterday on Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s plan to extend the license on its Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, amid protests from environmentalists and residents.The Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club and other groups opposed to BGE's proposal contended that the plant in Lusby poses potential environmental and safety problems and should be forced to shut down when its license to operate expires early in the next century."What we have here is an aging plant, and with it the increased likelihood that an accident will occur that should concern all Marylanders," said Glen Besa, a Sierra Club regional representative.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- It's as if the lion and the lamb decided to be friends.After 13 years of fears, distrust and bitter litigation, the operator of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and one of its harshest critics agreed yesterday to work together.In a landmark settlement, TMI's operator, GPU Nuclear Corp., said it would give residents near the facility the tools they need to independently monitor the site's radiation. Overseeing the effort will be Eric Epstein, a spokesman for Three Mile Island Alert, an anti-nuclear group that has been the utility's most tenacious opponent.

On tree-lined bluffs overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, where anti-nuclear activists won a landmark environmental victory 36 years ago, Constellation Energy Group Inc. is engineering atomic power's comeback. This time, even if there are protests, bulldozers will roll. That's because the Baltimore company and its allies have found a way around a long-standing regulatory policy they say added a year or more to construction times for nuclear plants. In April, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to industry demands that it reduce its oversight of initial work at reactor sites.

Even as Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. seeks to become the nation's first electric utility to re-license its nuclear power plant, its parent is targeting the controversial energy source as a key component of its post-deregulation business strategy to become a major power provider. To kick off the strategy, Constellation Energy Group plans to acquire additional reactors to expand its nuclear portfolio beyond Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and create economies of scale. Constellation wants to take advantage of bargain prices for nuclear plants as other utilities, which have chosen to focus on transmission rather than power generation, put theirs up for sale, company officials said.

Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland is due for closer scrutiny by federal regulators after unspecified security lapses discovered there earlier this year. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has finalized a "greater than green" finding of security deficiencies spotted during a special inspection from January to July of this year, according to a letter released Wednesday. The agency has not disclosed the nature of the problems, saying that releasing such information might help someone to attack or sabotage the twin-reactor plant in Lusby in Calvert County.

Workers at Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Southern Maryland were working Sunday afternoon to bring a reactor online after it was shut down late Saturday when a piece of debris tossed by heavy winds from Hurricane Irene damaged a transformer. Spokesman Mark Sullivan said "Unit 1" remains off-line while workers inspect the transformer and ensure it is in "safe and workable condition. " A second reactor was working fine at 100 percent power, and the plant remains stable, Sullivan said.

Visitors who attend Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station's Community Information Night will find answers to questions about how nuclear energy is generated, according to the owner of the plant on the Susquehanna River near Delta, Pa., just north of the Harford County border. The free event will be held in the station's training center Thursday, June 2, from 5 to 8 p.m. Station employees will be on hand to educate visitors on station operations; site maintenance; engineering practices; environmental stewardship; industrial and radiological safety; site security; and emergency preparedness.

Thank you for the article on nuclear plant safety in this country ("Should we worry about nuclear plants here?" March 20). As you point out, the Peach Bottom Reactor shares the same boiling water reactor design as the Daiichi plants. Calvert Cliffs is not a boiling water reactor. (It is a pressurized water reactor, as was Three Mile Island.) It is also only 3-4 miles from the largest liquid natural gas terminal in the United States. A huge fire at the terminal might have very serious consequences down the road.

Like many Americans, Linda Billings has been following news of the unfolding crisis in earthquake-rocked Japan, where a crippled nuclear power plant teeters on the brink of a disastrous meltdown. But the 55-year-old Street resident is paying perhaps a bit more attention than most. Her home in northern Harford County is less than 10 miles from a similarly designed nuclear plant just across the border in Pennsylvania. "I've not worried about it, but perhaps I should," she said late last week.

When the winds howl out of the northeast, few anglers brave the whitecaps that roll across the Chesapeake Bay. For three men, though, the urge to wet their lines near the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday morning nearly cost them their lives when their small boat capsized and sent them scrambling for a tiny piece of the keel still poking above the water's freezing surface. With the Coast Guard and Natural Resources Police nowhere near and the 10-minute window for survival closing, they were saved by Capt.

In a petition filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a national watchdog group is seeking to block renewal of an operating license for Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.The Lusby plant, which is operated by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., in April became the first nuclear plant in the country to apply for renewal of its 40-year license. Any potential challenges might set precedents, and all aspects of the process are being closely watched in the industry.Under an order signed by the NRC yesterday, a panel must decide within 90 days whether the National Whistleblower Center, which filed its petition Aug. 7, qualifies to intervene in the renewal.

In a move to expand its power-generating business, Constellation Energy Group said yesterday that it has agreed to acquire a nuclear power plant from Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. for $401 million. The R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant northeast of Rochester, N.Y., would be Constellation's third nuclear plant and fit its strategy of generating and selling power nationwide, company officials said yesterday. Mayo A. Shattuck III, Constellation's chairman, president and chief executive officer, called the Ginna plant "one of the jewels of the U.S. nuclear industry.

Development of a new nuclear power plant in Maryland suffered a major setback last week with the disclosure that Constellation Energy Group has withdrawn from the federal loan guarantee program. Without those guarantees, it would appear unlikely that Calvert Cliffs 3 will be developed by Constellation and its partner in the project, Electricite de France. That can't thrill shareholders in Constellation, as the company has already sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, nor EDF, which invested in Constellation in order to participate in what many believe is a coming nuclear renaissance in this country.

Constellation Energy Group's proposed joint nuclear venture cleared a big regulatory hurdle Friday, getting the green light from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC's approval of Constellation's $4.5 billion deal to sell half its nuclear power business to French utility Electricite de France leaves only one more test that the companies had not expected to face: a review by Maryland regulators. Last week, the Public Service Commission extended hearings on the transaction because of wrangling over the agreement's final terms.