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With the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, northeastern Monroe County residents are reminded of the nuclear energy in their own backyard.
The Ginna Nuclear Power Plant is just miles from the county border, putting Webster and Penfield residents within a 10-mile emergency zone if tragedy were to strike the plant.
Although scientists have found a fault line running beneath Lake Ontario, plant officials say the Ontario plant is not in danger of being damaged by the magnitude of quakes that shook Japan last week. On Wednesday, a 4.7-magnitude quake struck about 300 miles away in Canada — near the same spot that a quake rumbled last June, shaking Rochester. Scientists have also found a fault line running through Lake Ontario.
“All of our plants are outside of high-hazard earthquake zones,” said Maria Hudson, senior analyst for communications at the plant.. “So an event like the one happening in Japan is unlikely given the plant’s locations. It’s still too early to pull the lessons from Japan, but we are talking to people in the industry from around the world to see what we can learn.”
While Japanese authorities struggle to contain the damage from a crippled nuclear power plant, local emergency management officials are watching the developments with interest.
“The events are still unfolding to see what some of those lessons learned might be,” said Fred Rion, Monroe County’s associate emergency manager. “We are in constant communications with Ginna and the staff there because of the proximity of the plant to Monroe County. We are planning, testing, exercising, communicating on a regular basis with Ginna.”
A large group of agencies and organizations work regularly with the Office of Emergency Management to ensure the best laid plans are in place for the “worst-case scenario.”
“We rank all those potential hazards and you plan a worst-case scenario. If worst-case does happen, great, you’re prepared,” Rion said. “I’m sure anything can happen anywhere, but I’m not looking at it and saying, ‘It happened in Japan, so it could happen here.’”
Though fuel in a nuclear plant cannot explode, or produce a nuclear explosion, it can emit airborne radioactive materials.
Signals in nursing homes, schools, industrial plants and other buildings have been installed within the 10-mile emergency zone, and set evacuation routes have been distributed to residents. Routes take residents down one of the three outlets and thoroughfares from Webster — the Bay Bridge, Empire Boulevard and the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge. But some residents on the lake are nervous of the outlet bridge’s reliability during an emergency.
With the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, northeastern Monroe County residents are reminded of the nuclear energy in their own backyard.
The Ginna Nuclear Power Plant is just miles from the county border, putting Webster and Penfield residents within a 10-mile emergency zone if tragedy were to strike the plant.
Although scientists have found a fault line running beneath Lake Ontario, plant officials say the Ontario plant is not in danger of being damaged by the magnitude of quakes that shook Japan last week. On Wednesday, a 4.7-magnitude quake struck about 300 miles away in Canada — near the same spot that a quake rumbled last June, shaking Rochester. Scientists have also found a fault line running through Lake Ontario.
“All of our plants are outside of high-hazard earthquake zones,” said Maria Hudson, senior analyst for communications at the plant.. “So an event like the one happening in Japan is unlikely given the plant’s locations. It’s still too early to pull the lessons from Japan, but we are talking to people in the industry from around the world to see what we can learn.”
While Japanese authorities struggle to contain the damage from a crippled nuclear power plant, local emergency management officials are watching the developments with interest.
“The events are still unfolding to see what some of those lessons learned might be,” said Fred Rion, Monroe County’s associate emergency manager. “We are in constant communications with Ginna and the staff there because of the proximity of the plant to Monroe County. We are planning, testing, exercising, communicating on a regular basis with Ginna.”
A large group of agencies and organizations work regularly with the Office of Emergency Management to ensure the best laid plans are in place for the “worst-case scenario.”
“We rank all those potential hazards and you plan a worst-case scenario. If worst-case does happen, great, you’re prepared,” Rion said. “I’m sure anything can happen anywhere, but I’m not looking at it and saying, ‘It happened in Japan, so it could happen here.’”
Though fuel in a nuclear plant cannot explode, or produce a nuclear explosion, it can emit airborne radioactive materials.
Signals in nursing homes, schools, industrial plants and other buildings have been installed within the 10-mile emergency zone, and set evacuation routes have been distributed to residents. Routes take residents down one of the three outlets and thoroughfares from Webster — the Bay Bridge, Empire Boulevard and the Irondequoit Bay Outlet Bridge. But some residents on the lake are nervous of the outlet bridge’s reliability during an emergency.
“I am definitely in a vulnerable spot down here,” Webster resident and Irondequoit Bay business owner Fran Beth said. Beth owns Marge’s Seaside Inn on the Irondequoit side of the bay. “In the summer, I have a yellow inner-tube ring that I can just get in the water and float to the other side of the bay. I’ve got a better shot at getting away that way if we have to evacuate.”
The outlet bridge is not available for seven months of the year — opening April 1 and closing Nov.1.
Evacuation routes for the nine Emergency Response Planning Areas (ERPA) do not require a trip over the bridge by the water, but it is the closest and quickest route for many on the water if any type of emergency were to happen.
“Look at the accidents that happen on the Bay Bridge with the daily commute,” Beth said. “Picture it with everyone trying to get out of town.”
In case of emergency, the Department of Transportation can put the bridge back in place, said Rob Boutillier, Webster fire marshal and emergency coordinator. The extra drive to the Bay Bridge, he said, wouldn’t be a matter of life or death, however.
“I don’t think the extra 10 to 20 minutes in a radiological event is going to be that big of a deal,” he said. “(The outlet bridge) is not something we’re overly concerned with at the town.”
As of now, Webster has not received any indication that emergency plans could be revised due to the crisis in Japan.
The risks
Like the two other Constellation Energy nuclear power plants, the Ginna facility is outfitted with extremely sensitive seismic monitoring equipment that can detect even the smallest disturbance, Hudson said.
The safeguards
Hudson said the plant has been specially designed to withstand “the worst-case seismic scenarios,” along with other natural disasters like flooding, tornados and high winds. The facility includes redundant safety systems and a “defense and depth” approach to ensuring safety in the event of a shutdown. Radioactive fuel rods have three layers of protection. The rods themselves are surrounded by a zirconium cladding, which are then encapsulated in a steel vessel.
Emergency planning
Officials at the Ginna Plant have worked closely with local governments and emergency responders to develop an emergency response plan for residents living in the 10-mile emergency planning zone surrounding the plant, Hudson said. Anyone within the emergency response areas can — and are encouraged to — receive iodine pills to keep at home in case of emergency.
There are four types of emergency at the plant, that the government, and local residents, will have to react to differently. The least serious, unusual event, means a small problem has occurred and radiation leak is not expected. An alert means radiation has leaked inside the facility. A site area emergency will allow small amounts of radiation to leak from the plant and area sirens will be sounded. A general emergency is the most serious classification, and radiation will be released. Sirens will sound and instructions will be sent to residents.
Training
Safety and emergency response training occur frequently at the facility, involving both plant personnel and its community partners, Hudson said. The plant conducts between 10 to 12 safety drills each year, as well as annual disaster drills alongside hospitals, police and emergency management departments, she said. Every other year, the plant holds drills that are graded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Firefighters within the 10 mile emergency response zones also receive special training to respond to radiological crisis.
Waste storage
The safest place to store spent fuel rods for the time being, Hudson said, is at the site of the plant.
At Ginna, spent rods are sealed in steel-lined concrete vaults that are filled with water. Last summer, the plant finished work on an independent spent fuel rod storage installation, where the rods will be stored until the federal government approves of a permanent repository for nuclear waste.
