THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070175
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY RON WORD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SOUTHPORT LENGTH: 58 lines
Nuclear engineers said they learned a lesson from Hurricane Andrew, when Florida's Turkey Point Nuclear Plant was caught making chain reactions even as hurricane force winds battered its towers.
The Brunswick Nuclear Power plant on the Cape Fear River began cooling down 16 hours before Fran's eye struck the plant with 110 mph winds.
By Friday, it was clear the twin reactors emerged unscathed and Fran caused only minor damage to the office buildings.
``We took a lot of the lessons of Andrew and incorporated them here,'' said Bill Levis, director of operations at the plant owned by Carolina Power & Light Co.
Four years ago, Turkey Point south of Miami stayed powered up as Hurricane Andrew rushed ashore with 150 mph winds. Owner Florida Power & Light noted the plant was built to withstand 235 mph winds and it wanted to make sure power was available to customers.
Those reactors reached the point where their nuclear chain reaction stopped just 20 minutes before Andrew struck.
That storm destroyed Turkey Point's administration building, knocking over the water tower that provided fire protection to the plant and wiping out the security cameras and sensors.
Levis said Brunswick took its steps to ensure an orderly shutdown. There was no damage to fencing or security monitoring devices, he said.
However, the plant did declare an ``unusual event'' because it lost some outside power that affected its security systems, said Roger Hannah, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman.
Levis did not know when the plant, which provides 20 percent of CPL's power, would go back on line. He said it would need approval from the NRC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency before restarting.
CP&L's Harris Nuclear Plant outside of Raleigh also had some minor damage, but it had started shutting down Tuesday for maintenance, Hannah said.
Had there been an emergency, however, many of the plants' warning sirens would not have worked. Twenty-five of Brunswick's 34 sirens were knocked out by the wind or lack of power and Harris lost 31 of its 82 sirens, Hannah said.
Even with both plants idle, CP&L had plenty of power for customers once storm-damaged lines could be repaired, spokeswoman Sally Ramey said.
The General Electric nuclear fuels plant in Wilmington, also in the path of the storm, rode it out with only minor damage, Hannah said.
Levis said the only structural damage at Brunswick, which sits in a large open area, was to its office buildings away from the two reactors, which generate 16 megawatts of power.
Tin was ripped off the side of a building and there were some broken windows and roof damage. Levis said his second floor office had 2 feet of water.
``It's the same type of things homeowners have to deal with,'' he said.
Workers rode out the storm in a windowless concrete building, he said.
A sign outside the plant says Brunswick has had 15,526,676 accident-free work days since July 22, 1989. Despite Fran's best effort, Levis says that will stand. by CNB