Russ took the time to write this letter and send it to his family. I felt it would be important to include on our blog since it details how our little family was affected by something so far away from us...
This letter is intended to update all of you on our current status. I have received a lot of questions about the events in Japan and if it affects my job in the project of building two new reactors. The company that owns the nuclear power facilities in Japan is called TEPCO. TEPCO bought in 10% of our project on the condition that we get a loan guarantee from the DOE (Department of Energy). The loan guarantee is essentially the government cosigning a loan to build new plant so that the interest rate would be decreased. A decreased interest rate on a multi billion dollar project is a big deal. As you know, working with the government is extremely tedious and slow. We were hoping to get the guarantee in the beginning of last year but we still have not yet received it. For the past year each company invested in our project have been taking turns funding the project until the government loan guarantee is granted. This year funding was supposed to come from TEPCO. Since TEPCO is facing many difficulties in Japan with some of its reactors, they will not be able to fund our project here in Texas. This means that our project has lost this years funding.
Losing funding is not the only problem. When the Three Mile, Chernobyl and 9/11 happen new regulations from the government came along. These regulations take time to be spelled out by the government and it also takes time and money to be implemented by nuclear operating companies. These new regulations and also the political spin cause more uncertainty for nuclear power.
To sum it all up, our project is now only spending money for a small select group to continue to pursue a license and a loan guarantee in hopes that the project will pick up by the end of the year. I am not part of the team that will remain with the new project. I have been transferred to work under the management of the existing units. I have been selected to join a research team to act upon what new regulations that we might see in the future. Mainly it is to analyze a large breach in our dike because it was the tsunami that caused the problems in Japan not the earthquake.
For those of you that are curious, there is a nuclear power plant that was closer to the epicenter of the earthquake and right on the water. That plant was a new ABWR. The ABWR did not receive any damage from the earthquake or the tsunami. The ABWR is the plant that we are trying the build in Texas. It was the plants that were 40 years old that sustained all the damage.
Though not all of the events in Japan are currently clear we do know the big picture. During an earthquake reactors are SCRAMed (shutdown) and taken off line. Auxiliary power is started to feed power to necessary equipment like pumps. Even though the earthquake was stronger that what the nuke plant was designed for, the plant did exactly what it was suppose to do. No damage occurred to the reactor from the earthquake. Two diesel generators were started to give the auxiliary power. The problem came when a tsunami that was 2 meters higher that what the plant was designed for came into play. The tsunami swept away and flooded all the necessary equipment to feed the auxiliary and offsite power to the plant. Without electricity to feed the pumps water evaporated out of the system and over time the fuel will heat up leading to a possible melt down.
For those of you who get questions about radiation contamination coming to the U.S., the best thing is to put the whole incident in perspective. How many people thousands of people on the west coast died from radiation poisoning when we dropped two atomic bombs (with a much higher yield than a power plant) on Japan? So far I count zero. If the west coast can survive the bombing in Japan then why would it not survive a nuclear plant melt down? So I find no need to buy potassium iodide pills or any other so called anti radiation pills. If people are that concerned about it then they should skip the x-ray at their next dentist appointment.
Anyway, hope this info helps. Once again, I still have a job. I do not have to move and I am not taking a cut in pay. The only major change is that in our lives is that I have a new job description.
