The Shearon Harris Nuclear Generating Station is one of the largest nuclear power plant's in the United States.
It is located in New Hill, North Carolina about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh. The plant contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country.
It is not just a nuclear-power-generating station, but also a repository for highly radioactive spent fuel rods from two other nuclear plants.
The spent fuel rods are transported by rail and stored in four densely packed pools filled with circulating cold water from Harris Lake to keep the waste from heating.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has marked Shearon Harris as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in the nation.
However, a threat exists without a terrorist attack. Should the cooling system malfunction, the resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable and could trigger a nuclear meltdown, putting thousands of residents of this rapidly growing section of North Carolina in extreme peril.
Labs have conducted studies that estimate that a pool fire could cause 140,000 cancers, contaminate thousands of square miles of land, and cause over $500 billion in off-site property damages.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has estimated that there is a 1:100 chance of pool fire happening under the best of scenarios.
In 1999, the plant experienced four emergency shutdowns. A few months later, in April 2000, the plant's safety monitoring system, designed to provide early warning of a serious emergency failed.
In the spring of 2003 there were four emergency shutdowns of the plant, including three over a four day period. One of the incidents occurred when the reactor core failed to cool down during a refueling operation, the reactor dome was off of the plant.
Source:
CounterPunch, August 9, 2008
Title: “Pools of Fire”
Author: Jeffrey St. Clair
Student Researchers: Krisden Kidd and Karene Schelert
Faculty Evaluator: Heidi LaMoreaux, PhD
Sonoma State University
