Springing a Radioactive Leak

Plumbing problems close several nuclear-power plants

Residents of Ontario, N.Y., are used to seeing steam spouting from the stacks of the Robert E. Ginna nuclear-power plant. So they were not excited last week when the 470-MW plant, which serves 320,000 customers in communities near Lake Ontario, once again began sending white plumes into the frigid air. But their calm turned to alarm when cars from local law-enforcement agencies arrived to block the plant's gates, and word spread that county officials were dusting off plans to evacuate surrounding residential areas. After twelve years of accident-free operation, the Ginna plant had sprung a leak and spewed out radioactive steam.

Although it began like a replay of the crisis at Three Mile Island, the Ginna accident proved far less serious. According to officials from Rochester Gas and Electric Corp., which owns the plant, and engineers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a corroded pipe in the reactor's primary cooling loop that carries radioactive water into the plant's steam generator ruptured, contaminating water in the normally nonradioactive secondary loop. The leak also raised the pressure in the secondary loop, triggering a safety valve, which vented the now radioactive steam into the atmosphere. At the same time, slightly radioactive water from the secondary loop flowed into a holding tank in the plant's sealed containment building. When the tank filled, a worker opened a relief valve; it stuck and could not be closed until 1,690 gal. had spilled onto the containment-building floor. Some 100 workers were evacuated.

The level of radioactivity outside did not rise appreciably, and within hours the reactor was safely heading toward a "cold shutdown." The plant could be closed for as little as three weeks or as long as three months. During that time, Rochester Gas and Electric will buy power from another company and pass the extra cost along to its customers; electricity bills are expected to rise $5 to $7 a month.

The accident could not have come at a more awkward time for the nuclear-power industry, already under attack for its spotty safety record. What is worse, the Ginna mishap may be a portent of troubles ahead, since steam lines in many plants around the country are also plagued by corrosion. Indeed, by week's end, reactors in New Jersey and Vermont had been shut down because of leaks in their plumbing, and the NRC reported that plans to restart Three Mile Island's Unit No. 1, closed for refueling at the time of the 1979 accident at its sister plant, would be delayed at least six months because of similar leaks there.

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